Welcome to Specterton
by whoopsie
Summary: Specterton was a peaceful town until the Fentons moved in. But now Ellie Fenton, Danny and Sam Fenton's daughter, is learning about her own ghost powers. How will everyone respond, and how will she face the horror lurking in her father's past? COMPLETE!
1. Welcome to Specterton

**Chapter One**

**Welcome to Specterton**

The moving van tumbled along Route 105 towards our new home. There really wasn't much to look at- trees, shrubs, trees and shrubs, trees that resembled shrubs, and of course, road signs. No one really seemed to travel this route. Unless you count us, of course.

"Us" does not consist of many people. Mainly, the moving van had three people in it. And a cat. The cat was Phanny, short for Phantom. She's bright white, with a small black spot right smack in the center of her head. She sat silently in my lap, staring out the window. For most of the trip Phanny has been extremely quiet so that I almost forgot she was there, until, of course, a 16-wheeler went by and she dug her nails into my thigh. Then I knew she was there. Phanny is always quiet-she prowls around on light feet so that she has an almost ghostly presence. It gets a bit freaky sometimes, but I love my cat.

The person to my right was my dad. I was sitting squished in the middle of both my parents. My dad is Daniel Fenton- "Dan" as his friends call him, "Danny" to my mom and "Uncle Tucker". He was fast asleep, having been quite tired for most of the trip. Honestly, I don't know what he does that makes him so tired. His face was flat up against the window, his black hair was a mess (as usual), and his eyes were closed, covering bright blue eyes. My dad is a strange one- I can never fully describe him. Sometimes he's gone for parts of the day, and sometimes he's so tired in the morning even though he was sleeping all night. I love my dad, but still, I can't say he's not strange.

To my left was my mom, driving. Samantha Manson-Fenton. She refused to give up her maiden name after she was married, but she still wanted her married name, so she stuck a hyphen in between them. Real original. My mom is an all-out environmentalist- she works for the EPA. That's why we're moving. She got a promotion, but she had to be transferred to get it. So we decided to move out of our little apartment in Amity Park, Oregon and buy a house in Middle-of-Nowhere, Pennsylvania. Okay, I made that up. The name of the town is Specterton. But it's in the middle of nowhere, so I, as it's new resident, am allowed to insult it. It's not like it was my idea to move here.

And, I am the last person in the car. I am Lilleth Madison Fenton, a thirteen-year-old girl who doesn't want to move. I'm going into high school this year. I'm a little younger than most of the people in my grade, but that's okay with me. It makes me feel special. My birthday is in a week- too bad I'll have no one to celebrate with except my mom and dad. I didn't have any friends back in Amity Park, either, and it will probably be the same here. So I'm not getting my hopes up or anything, just saying.

Lost in the fantastic view of trees, shrubs, road signs, and trees that resembled shrubs, it took me a second to comprehend when my mom all of a sudden burst out, "Look! We're here! Welcome to your new home, Ellie."

Oh, did I forget to mention everyone calls me Ellie? Sorry, I get lost in the grandness of my introductions.

"Huh?" I said, as another 16-wheeler surprisingly swerved around us and pulled it's horn. Phanny dug her nails deeper into my skin and gave a wild hiss. I hate long car rides. Not that we're in a car or anything. Oh, whatever.

"We're here," my mom repeated.

And then I saw it. The great sign that read "Welcome to Specterton". I was at my new home now, wishing I was at my old one.


	2. 666 Hallows Way

Chapter Two

666 Hallows Way

It wasn't long before we reached the center of town. Considering the size of the town, I mean. And I'll tell you this, this place is OLD. And I don't use that term lightly. The movie theater was shabby and worn and had advertisements for movies that appeared to be from the forties. But it also had advertisements for plays, ones from about the 1800's. I bet they could sell those posters on EBay for a fortune. But considering they hadn't sold them in the last 200 years, I don't think they were about to.

The municipal building loomed over the rest of the town at four stories tall. It looked older than the posters, and had a bunch of roman numerals on the side I couldn't quite make out. I made a promise to come back later and look at it more closely.

Most of the houses appeared quite quaint, old Victorians that have stood the test of time. But some were on odd slants with boards over the windows. I could have sworn I saw someone staring back at me from one of the windows of a creepy old mansion that was set apart from the rest. I continued staring at it until it passed out of view. I made a mental note to stay away from that place when I went to the municipal building.

"Okay, we're looking for 666 Hallows Way," Mom said.

"It was back there," Dad moaned. I hadn't even known he was awake. Shows how observant I am.

Mom hit the brakes and swerved hard. It's amazing the trailer didn't jackknife at that second. But we made it. I have to admit that my mom's driving is not one of my favorite aspects of her.

We headed back in the direction of the creep-o house. I was hoping dearly that our house was not one of those boarded up ones on odd slants in the middle of town.

Mom came to a screeching halt, sending me forward almost into the windshield. My heart leapt. We were stopped outside of the weird, creepy mansion. What a nice "Welcome to your new home" that was.


	3. The Katz

Chapter Three

The Katz

"Isn't it beautiful, Ellie?" Mom asked me. "I mean, for what we paid for it, right, Danny?"

"What?" Dad responded. "Yeah, sure, whatever…"

I did not know what my parents paid for this house. And frankly, I didn't care if it cost them twenty bucks. I hated this house on sight of it. I mean, the paint was chipping, the wind blew eerily through the long grass, and I had seen a face staring back out of it at me when it was supposedly empty! I was now kind of wishing we lived in that little shack downtown… or an outhouse, for that matter, anything but this place.

Maybe it just had been the trick of my eyes. I mean, the looming, haunting face was no longer in the window. Maybe this was just a normal, quaint Victorian… oh, forget it. This place was normal! HA! Over my dead body, it's normal!

I walked up the slate stairs and peeked in the front door. It was empty inside, except for some dust bunnies that rolled across the floor like tumbleweeds.

"Hi!"

A loud voice awoke me out of my reverie. Someone was shouting to me from out near the road. I turned.

A group of people was standing out by my Mom and Dad. Two adults- the woman was rather small and plump with tight dirty-blonde curls, the man also somewhat short with light brown hair, most of it balded away. A tall, lanky teenage boy of about seventeen with dirty blonde hair stood with beside his parents with his hands shoved into his pockets. He towered over them, and seemed rather bored by the proceedings. Beside him was a small girl, about my age, with vibrant red hair and a leopard print jacket. She had what appeared to be a Nintendo Gameboy of some kind in her hand, and with the other hand she was waving enthusiastically. I looked at her, confused, wondering if she was waving to me. I pointed to myself. She nodded violently, her red curls flopping into her face, and signaled for me to join her family. I shrugged and went over.

The girl wasted no time in introducing herself. Just as I reached her, she said, "Hi! I'm Kaylie Katz, I'm fourteen, and you're my new neighbor! You're fourteen too, your mom told me, but she didn't tell me your name. What's your name?"

I took my time absorbing this long ramble. Okay. She was Kaylie Katz, and she wanted to know my name. And there was a whole bunch of stuff in the middle that I hadn't really had time to process.

"I-I'm not fourteen. I'll be fourteen next week. I'm Ellie Fenton," I said, leaving it up to her to ask me any more questions. Which, from the looks of it, she would.

"Where are you from? Do you have any pets? Can I see them?" She asked all at once.

"In order: Amity Park, yes, and sure," I replied.

I had accidentally left Phanny in the truck. Oops. As I said, sometimes it's hard to tell she's even there. Not my fault.

"Oh, crud, I left her in the truck!" I screeched. Kaylie's smile quickly faded to shock, and she bolted to the truck alongside me. But she was faster than me. Kaylie wrenched open the door, and Phanny hopped out lightly, jogging over to me. I scooped her up and nestled my face in her white fur, breathing in her smell. Cat smell. I loved it.

"She's okay," I said. Phanny purred as I stroked her ear.

Kaylie's mouth was in a wide O, and her eyes sparkled. "Is that your cat?" she asked.

"Uh… yeah, this is Phanny. Short for Phantom," I replied.

Kaylie reached out towards Phanny, who stared back with a look of instant likeness. "Can… I mean, can I…" She couldn't seem to get the sentence out.

"Sure." I handed Phanny to Kaylie, where she purred deeply.

"She's beautiful," Kaylie whispered into her fur.

"Thank you. She's my baby. I like to think she looks like me sometimes," I said jokingly.

Kaylie laughed. She had a nice laugh, light and lovely and full of everything good in the world. It's like she just left the world behind and laughed everything away.

"Thank you," she said gently, handing Phanny back to me. "I LOVE cats."

"Don't you have any pets?" I asked.

"Not really… Well, we have lizard- no wait, we had to give that away when we found out Eli was allergic to it… Um, I have dust bunnies in my room, does that count?" She replied.

I laughed a little, not sure if she was trying to be funny or not, but when I saw she was serious I stopped. "No, I don't think they do."

"Well, wait, I do have something a bit like a pet!" Kaylie reached deep into her pocket, and pulled out what appeared to be a Nintendo DS. It was covered in cat stickers. "Look at this!"

Pulling a stylus out it, Kaylie whipped open the system and turned it on. A screen came up that said "NintenCats." Oh, boy.

A little virtual kitten came up, a little calico. "This is Emi. Her name is Japanese for beauty. I searched on the internet all day to come up with it. She's a calico, and she loves to play with the yarn, but she's scared of the little toy mouse. Sometimes I wish she were real. Then she could sleep on my bed with me, and I could play with her. But Mom and Dad and Eli are all allergic." Kaylie glanced a little sorrowfully over her shoulder at her parents and brother. "My family is allergic to a lot of things. That's why we can't get a cat, or a dog, or even a stupid lizard."

I felt really bad for Kaylie. I stood in front of her, with everything that she dreamed of having, but couldn't. Kaylie could never have a pet, unless she moved out or something. And it wasn't even her fault. It just kind of worked out that way. I found myself wishing I could give Kaylie something to make her feel better, even though I had just met her. Was I making a new friend? Whoa. Things moving too fast, can't keep up. Head spins.

The little woman that was Kaylie's mom walked up to her and placed her hand on her shoulder. She couldn't have been taller than five foot three, and Kaylie was still shorter than her. But her mother was a plump little woman, and Kaylie was small and practically a stick. "Kayla, it's time we put dinner on. Say goodbye to your friend. You'll see her Monday on the bus," she said.

"What are we having?" Kaylie asked.

"Tofu turkey, low-starch potatoes, and beans," her mother replied. That sounded awful! I made a mental note to invite Kaylie over for dinner some night. She sounded like she needed REAL food. Kaylie turned to me and stuck her tongue out and closed her eyes in disgust. Her mother didn't see.

"Sounds fine," Kaylie lied. "Bye, Ellie! I'll see you tomorrow at school! It'll be our first day at Drogo High!" And with a final wave, Kaylie, her parents, and her brother Eli crossed the street. Kaylie turned back and waved every few feet, and I waved back every time. It felt good not to be totally self-conscious or anything. I didn't go in until I was quite sure Kaylie was inside and wasn't waving anymore.


	4. Laughter

**Chapter Four**

**Laughter**

That night I couldn't sleep well. I had the first day of school coming, and all night I couldn't help feeling like I was being watched. I snuggled down with Phanny, trying to keep myself from running to my parents' room and sleeping with them instead. The wind made odd noises outside my window, and every time it stopped, there was a horrible silence in between. I wasn't sure what was worse.

Eventually I did get to sleep around three in the morning. But it was a light sleep, and my dreams were filled with hauntings behind windows calling my name.

"Ellie… Ellie… Ellie…"

"Ellie! Ellie! ELLIE!"

I screamed out. "No! Get away from me!" I tried to struggle to my feet, but I was tangled in the sheet, so when I tried to get up, I merely stood for a moment before toppling to the floor, screaming.

"Honey, are you all right?" said Mom's voice from outside my door.

"Yeah, Mom, just a bad dream… I was being attacked by… lobsters…"

"Oh, not that dream again!" Mom said before heading downstairs.

Lobsters? I asked myself. When had I told Mom that I dreamed about lobsters? Oh, well, back to non-lobster-related things… But really, what had compelled me to say lobsters?

I looked over to the outfit I had picked out today. Light blue shirt with embroidery, and plain jeans with maroon Nike sneakers. I pulled the shirt over my head and began to ponder my lobster outburst.

"Why lobsters?" I asked myself aloud, and began to pull my pants on.

Then I heard it. _Laughter. _

Not mine. Not my parents. Not Phanny. I looked around. No one was there.

GHOST! GHOST! RUN, RUN, RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!

I ran. With no pants on. Out, out into the hallway, and I bolted down the stairs. EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF!

Mom was in the kitchen when I got there, eating cold cereal and looking at an old Lands End catalog. She looked up as I ran past.

"Ellie! What are you DOING?" she screeched.

"GHOST! Ghost in my room! Laughing… at me…" I stopped. I realized what I was saying.

"Ghost? Sweetie, there are no ghosts here." She didn't look totally convincing. "Just go get your pants on and thank goodness your dad isn't here."

"Where is Dad?" I asked. "Oh, whatever." I bolted back upstairs before he came home.

I didn't want to go back in my room. The ghost was there. I knew this house was haunted! I knew! I was right! This victory was not so sweet.

A bag of my new school-clothes that my mom had told me to put away was sitting in the hallway. I pulled out a denim skirt, ripped the tags off, and got dressed. At least I was decent now. I pulled out my new NewBalances. Not as nice as my other ones, but out here in the hallway. I slipped them on over my socks and hopped down the stairs, trying to put as much room as I could between the ghost and me.

Fifteen minutes later, I stood out on the end of our driveway, eating a blueberry muffin. I continually looked over my shoulder to make sure the ghost hadn't followed me.

A door slammed across the street. I jumped a foot into the air.

Kaylie and Eli were emerging from their house. Kaylie danced circles around her brother. They began to cross the street.

Eli looked dull and serious, as usual, dressed in khaki. He had iPod headphones in his ears, with the iPod shoved into his pocket.

Kaylie was the total opposite of her brother. With a shirt with a cat on it, and denim jeans with hot pink Pumas. Her bright red hair, pulled back into a ponytail, flopped around violently as she bobbed her head to music. She had her Nintendo DS in one hand, and an iPod Nano in the other, with the headphones stuffed into her ears. I could make out her words as she sang, totally off-tune, to her music.

"OH MY GOD, YOU LOOK LIKE A FROG, OH MY GOD, YOU LOOK LIKE A FROG…" she yelled as she danced around her brother. A car passing by slowed down to look at her wild moves.

"HI ELLIE!" she shouted as if I weren't 3 yards away.

"HI KAYLIE!" I yelled so that she could hear me. She waved violently.

"I'M LISTENING TO HARRY AND THE POTTERS!" she yelled when she reached me.

"TAKE THE HEADPHONES OFF, KAYLIE!" I yelled. Eli took no notice. Kaylie took her headphones off.

"WHAT?" she screeched. I jumped. "Sorry," she murmured. "Oh, wait, look at this!"

And, just as Kaylie began to whip out the DS again, the bus pulled up. "Darn!" she said. "I'll show you on the bus."

And as the bus pulled away, I looked back at my new house, thankful I was leaving.


	5. Drogo High

**Chapter Five**

**Drogo High**

Bus 13 was a wobbly bus- so old it should have been in a Museum. Every bump it hit made the bus reverberate as if it was having a seizure. Kaylie didn't seem to mind a whole lot- she had just gotten another virtual cat (she wasn't sure about it at first, but she wanted Emi to have a playmate for when she wasn't there- go figure.) named Mosi- a brown tabby boy with a white chest and amber eyes. I gazed at Kaylie's DS, watching the two cats playing with a ball of yarn, and felt a pang of pity- I got to watch Phanny do that all the time. Kaylie had to have a virtual pet.

I hardly even noticed when we pulled up to the school. But then there was a soft sigh as the bus let off steam, and a loud, ear-piercing squeak as the bus driver opened the door. Kaylie snapped the DS shut, and shoved that and her Nano into her backpack.

"We're not supposed to have these in school," she said. "But I do it anyway."

I laughed, and took my cell phone out of the pocket on the side of backpack and shoved it deep down the front pocket instead.

The school loomed over us. The walls were a dark granite, so it looked as if years of dirt were clinging to the walls. Or maybe it was dirt. I didn't really want to find out.

"Hey, Kaylie Katz!" a voice said from behind Kaylie and I. I turned. There stood a blonde girl- tall and thin and pretty except for the sneer on her face- with blue eyes and the shortest skirt I'd ever seen.

"Oh, no," I heard Kaylie whisper. Her eyes grew big and scared, but she took a deep sigh and turned around with a defiant expression.

"Who is she?" I whispered.

But Kaylie wasn't listening. "What do you _want_, Lianna? Haven't you caused me enough trouble?"

"Who said I was here to cause you trouble?" Lianna said. "I just wanted to ask how your virtual friends were doing. I would ask you how your _real_ friends were, but you don't have any! So, how are your cats?"

"They're fine," Kaylie said defiantly, not even trying to hide the fact that she had virtual pets (which had obviously earned her a bad reputation). "And I do too have friends, Lianna! In case you haven't noticed, I was having a conversation with my friend Ellie."

Kaylie gave me a pleading look, asking me to play along. "Yeah, she does have friends," I said. "I just moved here. I'm her new friend." Kaylie looked relieved.

"Yah, we'll see how long that lasts," Lianna said, and stalked away.

"And that was…" I said, completely confused.

Kaylie wrinkled up her nose like she had smelled something funky. "Lianna Baxter. Her parents aren't any better," she added, "I met them last year. I went to the principal to tell her that Lianna wouldn't leave me alone, but nothing ever happened. And now she'll probably make fun of you too," Kaylie's face fell, "because I dragged you into this. I'm sorry."

"Oh, whatever," I said. "If she can't deal with the fact that you have a new friend, then let her get angry."

Kaylie smiled gratefully. "We should get to class."

"Hey, Kaylie, are you going to sit with me at lunch-" I began, when Kaylie cut me off.

"Uh, Ellie, the bell's going to ring soon. Let's get a move on!" she said as she raced up the steps. I shrugged and followed.


	6. Eric Cannon

Chapter Six

Eric Cannon

I kind of got a handle on stuff as the day went on. I liked my teachers, but no one here really accepted me as well as Kaylie did. They already had their cliques, and I wasn't allowed in. I was so glad when lunch rolled around and I could sit with Kaylie.

But as I sat down with my ready-packed lunch, I couldn't find her. I waited for Kaylie for about fifteen minutes, until the lunch line diminished, and she never came. So I was sitting alone. Ah, the memories of sitting alone at lunch. I really didn't want to remember them now.

So I got up. I wasn't about to sit here alone, but no one would let me sit with them either. So I got up and exited the lunchroom, totally unnoticed by everyone else.

But I wasn't sure where to go.

So I shoved my lunch into my locker, slammed the door (I was mad at everyone in this moment- why did no one like me? Was Kaylie only pretending to even be my friend? What was wrong with them? Etc., etc.) So I began to wander down the main hallway.

Office, boy's bathroom, closet (save that for if I was really desperate), girl's bathroom (again, if I'm desperate), other office for curriculum people, library, closet-

Wait a second. I rewinded.

Library. Remember, Ellie, you like books. So I opened the door quietly (I didn't know if this was one of those libraries where people really read books or the kind of one where the seniors skipped class and sat in the Reference section for whole periods at a time).

No librarian. No questions. Good.

I began to look around. This library was set up funny- all the fiction in the front and all the reference way in the back.

I began walking into the back- my favorite section, on the topic of The Civil War (I love history- the Civil War's my favorite). I passed about three couples from senior or junior year back here doing God knows what- I kept my eyes ahead and didn't look. It was that kind of library. No one really reads in here.

Thank goodness no one was in my section. I could hear someone mumbling in the next aisle over. I spotted what appeared to be a good reference book- big and thick, just the way I like my books- sitting innocently on the center shelf, right in front of my face. I reached outwards, but after that, I'm not really sure what happened.

My arm shot right through the bookshelf, appearing to slice right through the spine of the book. But the worst part was that I felt my fist collide with something- and it wasn't a book. A rather- uh, shall I say, erm, feminine screech erupted from the other side of the bookshelf. A loud resounding THUD and a toppling noise followed.

"Holy crud! Holy crud!" I screamed, realizing I must have hit a person. I stared at my hand for a moment, then raced around the shelf.

Lying amid a large pile of books was what appeared to be a boy about my age. It was really hard to tell, because he was covered in the mechanics section. A low moan came from the pile and it began to move.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! Are you hurt? Let me take you to the nurse! Oh my gosh, I can't believe I hit you! I'm so sorry!" I said really fast.

"I can't see…" the pile said.

"Oh my gosh, don't tell me I've blinded you! I've heard about this happening, please don't sue me, I didn't mean to! I'm sorry!" I wailed.

"No, you knocked my glasses off my face," he said. "I can't see without them. Can you find them for me? I'll be okay…"

"Oh, sure!" I said, rapidly beginning my search. "I'm so sorry I hit you, I don't know what happened, I can't believe-"

Holy crud. Don't tell me I didn't just hear what I think I heard.

CRUNCH.

I was about to cry as I looked down. How much damage could I do to this boy?

And sure enough, there were his glasses, broken, right underneath my sneaker. It didn't look completely bad- I had only um, shattered, one of the earpieces.

The boy seemed to know what had happened. "It's okay. I can always get new glasses."

I broke down. I couldn't stand to do anymore to this boy. I began sobbing uncontrollably- I really must have looked hilarious, crying when really more damage was done to this kid than to me. But I couldn't help it.

"Don't cry," he said nervously. "I'll just go to the nurse and it'll be fine…"

That made me cry harder.

"I'm- s-so- so-sorry!" I sobbed.

"Stop saying you're sorry. I'll be fine," he said. I could hear him getting up behind me. "I can get new glasses. And I don't think you broke my nose or anything. Just show me the way to the nurse and then I'll be fine."

"Are you sure?" I sobbed.

"Positive. Now show me the way." Okay. I could do that. I sniffled one last time, and picked up the broken glasses. "Lead the way, fuzzy figure," he said jokingly. I smiled.

I led the way. I felt even worse when he bumped into the doorframe, but he laughed it off, and I took his arm and led the way. I couldn't afford to have him slam into anything else or break anything else- I would be lucky now if he didn't sue me.

I was so glad to reach the nurse's office door. "We're here," I said.

"Okay, you can just leave me. The nurse- kind of, knows me well," he said, looking at his feet that he couldn't see.

"I can't just leave you!" I said. "Let me go in with you and let the nurse knows what happened!"

"No, really, it's okay, go back to lunch," he said, desperately trying to get away from me. I wasn't about to leave so soon- I had beaten this poor boy up, and now I was going to see it through that he got better.

I followed him into the nurse's office.

"Eric!" the plump nurse with the kind face said. "What happened to you!"

"Um… It's a long story," Eric said.

"Where are your glasses?" the nurse said.

"Oh, uh," I said drawing attention to myself for the first time, "I have them." I took Eric's glasses out of my pocket and handed them to the nurse. "And I was the one that hurt him. I kind of hit him in the face in the library and he fell into a bookcase- but it was an accident, I swear it was!"

"This true, Eric?" the nurse said. Eric nodded, and I was relieved.

Then a voice came that I recognized. "Ellie?" I turned around, and there was Kaylie, sitting in the back of the nurse's office, holding her lunch bag.


	7. What I Did Not Know

_We don't own Danny Phantom...We sure do own Ellie Fenton though!_

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**Chapter Seven**

**What I Did Not Know...**

Kaylie looked so embarrassed. She looked even more embarrassed when I all of a sudden said "What are you doing here?" in a rather loud voice. I didn't mean to sound rude, and I didn't sound angry, I don't think, but I was still very loud.

"I come here every day during lunch," Kaylie said. She looked at her feet. "You see, I never really had a chance to tell you, but… I have a condition. I have diabetes, and every day I have to check my blood sugar four times. Most of the time I'm at home, but I have to check during lunch every day."

I just kind of stood there. It might have been a few seconds, or maybe a few minutes, but I said, "Well, I was wondering why you weren't at lunch. I thought someone had kidnapped you or something."

Kaylie smiled. "You thought I was kidnapped and you didn't even bother to look for me? Well…" she said, "it looks like you had other things to do."

She looked at Eric, who was now giving his name to the nurse. He was Eric Cannon, freshman, in Mr. Leech's homeroom. Leech. I would hate to have that last name. I turned back to Kaylie. "It's not exactly my hobby to beat kids up. This was an accident," I said, trying to explain myself.

Kaylie was puzzled. "And so this happened how?"

"I think we would all like to know that one," the nurse said. I blushed a bit. But I still told them all, the story.

When I was at the end of the story, I had a question to ask. "Eric, you going to be okay?"

Eric looked rather dazed, and had an icepack on his head. The nurse answered for him. "I think he'll be okay. But you did give him a minor concussion, and he will have to see a doctor."

I groaned and put my face in my hands. Could this day get any worse?

-----

Now, a few months passed. Eric became one of my best friends- along with Kaylie. Eric's parents and mine kind of understood I didn't mean to punch Eric in the face. They still don't care for me, I don't think, but they understand enough that they let me hang around his house nearly every day. The only one in Eric's house that I think likes me is Hannah, Eric's little sister, who loves to come in with her arms full of Barbies asking us to play fairy princess with her. I don't mind, but Eric gets angry at her.

Kaylie is a regular at my house. My parents love her- she's used to being neat and clean, and is polite most of the time. They like Eric, too, but I don't think my whole explanation on how he wasn't my boyfriend really worked. Whenever he's over, they constantly swing by my room with laundry, or snacks, or even odd things like a new toilet bowl brush, just to check in on us. Ha.

But I haven't put my hands through any more books, or seen any more ghosts. I must have just been really- I don't know, that day. But it's December now, and everything's going well. Until one Tuesday morning, when they morning announcement crew dropped a bombshell on us…

"Good morning, Drogo High," the peppy announcement girl's voice boomed through the hallways. I was standing at Kaylie's locker, waiting to help her to class.

Today is December 6. The weather outside is cloudy with a chance of snow tonight. In other news, the date for the Christmas Ball has been set! For ninth and tenth graders, it will be Friday the 16th…" I lost her, totally blank. A ball? I had never even been to a school dance! A ball? Then I could hear again. The announcer's voice was back. "Be sure to bring a date!"

I blacked out.

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ok...alot of the chapters after are longer...don't worry! 

KEEP REVIEWING


	8. Eric's Question

**Chapter Eight**

**Eric's Question**

Next thing I knew, Eric, Kaylie, and I were eating lunch in the nurse's office; we did this every day, since Kaylie had to check her blood sugar and Eric and I didn't want to leave her alone. Today, as the nurse tended to a flu-stricken sophomore, we discussed the upcoming Christmas Ball.

"I can't believe they could just drop this bomb on us!" I squeaked.

"They told us about it, like- months ago!" Eric exclaimed.

"Like anyone listens to peppy happy Kelly," Kaylie said, mimicking a peppy girl skipping about, and flicking her hair, then laughing in a high-pitched voice.

"I don't mind Kelly," Eric said. "I think she's pretty good at the announcements."

"You only like her because you know that behind that microphone is a tall, pretty, blonde girl who flirts with anything that will stand still long enough," I said, messing with Eric.

"No I don't!" he retorted, blushing bright red.

"Ha, ha! Eric likes Kelly!" Kaylie giggled.

"Okay, we're not in fourth grade," Eric reasoned, still red. "Maybe I'm mildly attracted to her," he said, using his sciencey terminology again. He then changed the subject, "Anyway, who are you two taking to the dance? It's not like any one of us has dates."

"I don't know," Kaylie said.

"No idea," I responded.

"Me neither," Eric added.

"I haven't been here long enough to really-you know- like anyone," I said.

Eric squirmed in his seat a bit. "I could take one of you guys," he said.

Kaylie and I burst out laughing. I don't really know why we laughed- maybe it was just the thought of going to a romantic ball with a um… I guess you could say, platonic, friend was just a bit funny. And Eric was just like one of the most platonic guy friends I've ever had (I haven't had many friends- but you get my point.). But Eric was serious, and we stopped laughing.

"What's so funny about that," Eric asked, sounding kind of hurt.

Kaylie put words to exactly what I was thinking. "It's just- you know- you're Eric. You're our best friend, and it would just be kind of messed up to go on a date with you, if we were all to just remain friends," Kaylie looked directly into my eyes, pointedly. She had this theory that I liked Eric- even if I wouldn't admit it, even to myself. Ha. As if. "Maybe if you asked one of us, we might say yes, though."

Eric still looked hurt. "Whatever…"

We finished our lunch mostly talking about the newest Harry Potter movie.

As we exited the nurse's office, Kaylie bolted for Mr. Werstien's room, for she liked to get there early. Mr. Werstien was fresh out of college, and Kaylie, I believe, had a bit of a crush on him. But as I moved to turn into Mrs. Black's room, Eric grabbed my arm and pulled me aside. The lunch crowd began to file into the hallway.

"Ellie, can I talk to you?" Eric said.

What in the world was this about? I was curious. "Sure."

Eric led me into a gap between the lockers.

"Um… Ellie, I want to ask you some-" Someone knocked Eric in the back and his glasses slid down his nose. I smiled.

"Um…" Eric took my wrist. "Let's go in here." He pulled me into a broom closet. "I really want to ask you something."

"You know you can ask me just about anything, Eric," I said nicely, placing my hand on his arm. Even in the semi-darkness, I could see him turn a bright red. I removed my hand, kind of weirded-out now.

"Eric, tell me, what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong!" Eric said quickly. He placed his hands on my shoulders. I leaned my head to one side, still completely oblivious. "I just… I mean, I was just wondering…"

"What is it?" I asked, trying my hardest to be patient.

"I wanted to know if you were going to go to the Christmas Ball," he said, extremely fast.

"I was planning to… If I can get a date, that is," I said, still curious.

"That kind of leads to my second question," he said. Eric looked down at his feet, then directly into my eyes. Something inside me jumped.

"I just kind of… wanted to… I was wondering if you wanted to go with me." I was surprised at how confidently he ended that. Eric had always been so shy.

I stood there for a second, and looked at my feet. For some reason, that just sounded like a… good idea. I looked up into Eric's eyes. They were so green, and I just...

"Yes," I blurted out. Eric smiled, but I was so embarrassed by my enthusiasm I looked down again. Then I reached up and took Eric's hands off my shoulders. I held them between us, until I realized that I was holding Eric's hands. I freaked.

Eric was grinning. I let go. "Oh my… we should really get to class."

"Class?" Eric was confused and kind of punch-drunk. "Oh-Oh yeah! Class."

"See you later, Eric." And, for some odd reason or another, I hugged him. And Eric hugged me back.


	9. The Fentons

**Chapter Nine**

**The Fentons**

"Guess what!" Kaylie exclaimed.

It was Friday, after school. Kaylie came bouncing through the doorway of the front foyer. Eric, who was already sitting at the kitchen table, and I, looked up.

"Okay, I'll take a dive and ask," I said. "What is it Kaylie? Did you get a new Gameboy game again or something? Or did another one of Eli's friends come over and you just decided to come over here?"

"No…" Kaylie said, totally unfazed. "I want you to guess."

She waited.

Eric took a guess. "You're going squba-diving?"

"There's a new episode of Spongebob on tonight?"

"You're moving to China?"

"Oh, you'll never guess it!" she screeched. "I got a date to the ball!"

"Oh, that's great!" I squeaked. It was just a girlish impulse, I guess.

Eric wasn't as enthusiastic. "What's the catch? He weird looking or something? Or captain of the chess team?"

"Eric, _you're _on the chess team," I reminded him.

"Yeah, but I'm not captain!" Eric defended. "And I hardly ever go anymore…"

Kaylie and I laughed. Eric was so pathetic.

"So! Who is it?" I could barely keep from screaming, I was so happy for Kaylie.

"Roger Woods!" Kaylie screamed.

Eric and I exchanged looks. Roger Woods _was _co-captain of the Chess team. And captain of the computer club. He was a pale kid with almost white blonde hair to match, and glasses thicker than three times Eric's. He was a REAL geek.

"That's… great!" I said.

"Real good find, Kaylie," Eric said, trying to be as nice as he could.

"So, have either of you found dates yet?" Kaylie asked us.

Again, Eric and I looked at each other. We had neglected to tell Kaylie that we were going together. Kaylie turned her back and began looking through the refrigerator. She did that almost every time she was over, and I was kind of used to it. Kaylie continued talking.

"Because there's this one guy in my homeroom that I think you would really like… His name's Randy, and he's actually pretty cute…"

I placed my hand on Eric's shoulder. And took a deep breath. "Actually, Kaylie, I'm already going with someone," I said.

Kaylie wheeled around, shocked. "Who is it!" she screeched, then she stopped, looking at Eric and I.

"Oh… my… gosh…" she said, looking at us. Her eyes were huge. "I can't believe it…"

Kaylie dropped the bottle of Snapple she was holding, and glass shattered all over the floor.

"It's okay, Kaylie," Eric said, speaking up. "We're not dating or anything. Just, neither of us had dates, and so we just decided… yeah." His voice trailed off.

Kaylie was now trying to keep from giggling. "It's just…" She burst out laughing, tears in her eyes.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"It's just… no one takes a friend to the ball and still remains friends!" she gasped. "You'll see!"

I was just about to retort too when my dad came rushing in.

Now, let's get one thing straight. My dad is not very good with surprises. He once took us down to the docks and said we were getting a "surprise"… my mom and I thought we were going on a cruise. We went on a tugboat ride. Hoo-ray.

So you can understand when I wasn't that psyched about this new surprise. But I did sigh and follow him, signaling for Eric and Kaylie to follow me.

But when we got outside, I saw the worst surprise ever.

Nothing.

"Um, Dad, what exactly were you going to show me?" I asked.

"Wait for it…" Dad said. I waited, tapping my foot. Kaylie and Eric didn't look like they didn't want to be here.

Then, a roaring noise came from up the street. What in the world?

A little red sports car came flying up Hallows Way. The driver had to be going at least twenty miles over the speed limit. But was really surprising was when it pulled right into our driveway.

"Whoa," Eric said. "That's a 2005 Saleen S7 Twin Turbo! That thing costs half a million dollars!"

Kaylie and I looked at him. What?

"I like cars, so what!" Eric defended.

But then, I noticed the driver. I looked at my dad, and he grinned. Then I knew I knew who was behind the wheel.

"Uncle Tucker!" I screamed as he stepped out of the car. There was my dad's long time best friend, and one of the coolest people in the world. He really isn't my uncle, you can tell just by looking at us, but I call him that anyway. He stood there with his headset on, in his business suit. He hugged me as I ran to him.

"Ellie!" he said. I stepped back.

"Awesome car!" I screeched, still in total disbelief. I knew that Uncle Tucker was doing well, but- _really_. Uncle Tucker worked at Microsoft, and he always says he knows Bill Gates personally. That guy tells some nutty stories, and I doubt half of them are true. But I still love to hear them.

"Old Bill gave me a raise," Uncle Tucker said. "Guy gets real generous around Christmas. So I treated myself."

"Really," I said. "What happened to the junkbucket?" The junkbucket was what we called Uncle Tucker's old cruddy car. It was rusty and smelled of French fries.

"Still got it," he said. "It's in my garage between my BMW and my Hummer. Would never give that old girl up."

I rolled my eyes. Crazy stories. I turned to Kaylie and Eric, who were waiting patiently to be introduced. "These are my friends, Kaylie and Eric," I said. He said a polite hello and turned to my dad, asking how my mom was doing.

"That's my dad's best friend," I said. "He lives in New York city and I guess he just felt like coming for Christmas… He's really cool, but he tells some wild stories."

But just then, another car pulled up in our driveway. It wasn't a Saleen this time, but it was an Infiniti. But behind the wheel, I noticed the unmistakable red hair of my Aunt Jazz.

Now, my Aunt Jazz is not my favorite person. She criticizes everything. But in the seat beside her and in the backseat were my cousins- Dylan, Deyton, and Danielle, all with the same unmistakable red hair.

I don't know my cousins that well. They're a little odd, really… let's see, first of all, Danielle has a compulsion to be perfect. She spends hours picking out clothes, paints her nails every day, never gets dirty, and always thinks about what she says. It's terrible to be around her because she has this… I guess, pompous aura (somewhere my English teacher is in euphoria), and you just feel inferior. Deyton is skater, but just to tell you, he can't even ride one. He carries it around, wearing his beanie hat, but he never sets foot on it. I made a promise to myself to ask him to show me some of his skateboard moves next time I saw him, just to taunt him. I'm so evil. And Dylan's a prep. His wardrobe consists of the following: polos, khakis, sweaters, sweaters, and did I mention sweaters? And he's happy… ALL THE TIME! You can't have a conversation with him, he's just too sweet and peppy, so in your mind you're just screaming "Couldn't you just be sad or angry or something, you weirdo!" But then again, I think the same thing when talking to Danielle. So I think it's safe to say, I think Deyton is my favorite cousin. At least we can have a conversation that isn't like talking to someone who lives in happy, funny, fuzzy marshmallow unicorn land. Not that I hate Dylan and Danielle… but it's just that when I think of them, I can just taste that sweet happy fuzzy feeling in my mouth- I really don't mind preppy people, but my cousins are just- like an overdose of candy. Too sweet.

Dylan was first to bounce out of the car. Kaylie and Eric's mouthes dropped wide open and I think mine did too- but I really wasn't paying attention to that. I was looking at Dylan, who was currently in khakis and- A PINK SWEATER.

"Hello, Uncle Danny! Hello, Ellie!" he yelled out. Then he walked up and hugged me, and I almost gagged as that sweet feeling in my mouth overcame me. Eric and Kaylie exchanged looks- I think they could taste the sweetness too. Or smell his cologne, which smelled to me like beets.

Then Danielle stepped out, as gracefully as she could, in her perfectly pressed pink blouse and pleated gray skirt. Dylan let me go and went to shake hands with my dad, and just in time for me to see Eric lean around me and stare right at Danielle. What was it with him and these perfect, oh-look-at-me! girls? Kaylie snapped her fingers in front of his face.

"Hey!" she said. "Down boy!"

Aunt Jazz fixed her make-up and came out too. But instead of coming to say hello, she opened the backseat door and yelled at Deyton.

"Turn off that music and come say hello to your cousin!" she yelled. Deyton took off his earphones.

"WHAT?" he yelled excessively loud.

"Come see your family," Aunt Jazz said in that calm manner that creeped me out a little.

Deyton stepped out of the car, brushing back long red hair into his hat. He was still carrying that skateboard around. I looked at Eric, who looked rather embarrassed from being caught staring at my cousin, and then to Kaylie, who was watching Deyton stuffing his iPod into his pocket. I smiled. Kaylie never looked at guys like that, and it was just- funny. Eric noticed too. He snapped his fingers in front of her face sarcastically.

"Down girl!" he mocked.

Kaylie grabbed Eric's hand and bent back his fingers. He squeaked. "Sorry! Sorry!" he screamed. "Mercy!"

"That's what I thought you said," Kaylie responded evilly, then turned to me. "Yeah. Good luck with him."

I looked at Eric, nursing his fingers, and nearly cracked up.

Deyton walked up to us.

"Hey, Ellie!" he said happily, giving me a brief hug. "Who are your friends?"

"Well, this is Eric," I said, gesturing to Eric, who gave a brief wave. "And this is Kaylie, my best friend."

Deyton nodded to Eric, and then looked at Kaylie, who promptly turned a bright red. To my shock, he smiled and turned scarlet as well. Deyton hardly ever showed interest in any girl, and I never expected him and _Kaylie. _I mean, it's not that Kaylie wasn't pretty enough, it just seemed very odd. I looked at Eric, who, in spite of himself, was smiling at Deyton and Kaylie. The last time I saw that look in his eyes was when he asked me to the dance- and then I understood. Eric was just a romantic. No matter how geeky and all he was, he liked the idea of being loved… and of other people falling in love. Wow. I just learned something about Eric I didn't know.

Danielle then came up, walking perfectly, like a model walking down the aisle in a fashion show. "Hello, Lilleth," she said, using my full name- which, just to say, I had told her a MILLION times not to use!- and looking me up and down with strong disapproval before giving me a brief hug. Eric looked like he was about to die of shock at how perfect my cousin is. Hmph.

"It's absolutely spiffing to see you as well, Danielle Alexandria!" I said with the same tone of fake happiness, looking at her with the same sarcastic disapproval. I could do anything she could… and do it better.

"Aren't you going to introduce me to your friends?" she said, looking at Eric, who turned red, and Kaylie, who stared back angrily, obviously sensing that Danielle wasn't good news. She's such a good friend!

"Of course, you don't think I'm rude, do you?" I faked, giggling and pushing her playfully- a lot harder than was needed. "This is my friend Kaylie," I said, as Kaylie gave a stiff hello, "and my friend Eric." I gestured to Eric, who turned purple and hid his face in his shoulder. It made me want to strangle him. I wouldn't be surprised if in that moment I turned purple as well. Just something about him liking Danielle this much made me want to- ARGH!

"Well, it was fantastic to see you again!" Danielle exclaimed, looking at Eric with interest. I knew that she didn't like him- it wasn't very _Danielle_ to like a guy like Eric. She was just toying with him, and that made me MAD. I couldn't believe how mad I was as she walked away in that perfect manner, in those two-inch flowered heels, turning back and smiling at Eric like that. I wanted to kill her.

"Elle?" Kaylie's voice broke my murderous thoughts. I turned. "You okay?"

"No," I said.

Kaylie looked at Danielle, walking away, and then Eric, watching her. She brushed my hair behind my ear. "It'll be okay Ellie," she said. I smiled. I guess it would.

And with that, we all went inside, eating the dinner my mom had been preparing. I couldn't believe I had to spend Christmas with them- I told you my dad wasn't very good at surprises.


	10. What Happened at the Shop

**Chapter Ten**

**What Happened at the Shop**

That night at dinner (which, by the way, was only family, so I didn't have Eric and Kaylie to protect me) my mom made the mistake of mentioning to my Aunt Jazz and Danielle that I had a Winter Ball this week. Aunt Jazz asked if I had a dress, I tried to lie and say yes, my mom cut me off and said I didn't, Aunt Jazz said we should go shopping together, and then Danielle said she saw the perfect shop on the way to my house, and that's how we ended up here. Ursula's Dress Shop, 541 Main Street, in the next town over from Specterton (at least the next civilized one with a strip mall). Here I am with my mom, Aunt Jazz, Danielle (blech!), and Kaylie, who I begged to have come with us. We need to outnumber them, or we'll never win.

Ursula's wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be all Danielle in here- you know, poofy, pretty, and perfume-y. But it was just a normal dress shop. I breathed a sigh of relief.

But I shouldn't have sighed that sigh of relief so soon. Danielle immediately walked over to the pinkest, poofiest dress in the store and exclaimed, "Oh, Ellie! Aunt Sam! Isn't this just the most beautiful dress?" Danielle stroked the pink nylon mesh, and I nearly gagged at that sweet sour taste again. She just stood there, fawning over the ugliest dress in the universe, smiling sweetly but scornfully at the same time.

My mom looked as appalled as I did. "Erm… maybe something of another sort," she said, attempting to be polite to her niece. She walked over to a black and red dress.

"Ellie! Look! What do you think?" my mom asked. I kind of put on a half smile. The dress was nice, but really, I was looking for something a little less… goth.

"What's with your family and fashion sense?" Kaylie whispered to me. I shrugged. But just then, Danielle approached my mom with the pretty-princess dress. They began quietly debating, even though it was going to be MY dress, and although they were being quiet, I could smell a family feud coming.

"Come on, Kaylie," I whispered. "I don't like the looks of this." I grabbed Kaylie's arm and dragged her across the shop.

"You really don't like your family that much?" Kaylie asked.

"Yah," I replied quickly. "But isn't everyone's family like that?"

"Not really," Kaylie said. "But then again, I really only see my family once every few years. They live in Arkansas. We all get together for Thanksgiving on years divisible by three, don't ask me why, for Thanksgiving, tofu-style."

"Well. That's… erm... cool," I said awkwardly.

Kaylie seemed to know how weird it was already. "Yah, I know, we're uh… different," she said before browsing through a rack of dresses, smiling.

I smiled too and began looking.

"How about this one?" Kaylie asked, holding up a dress that I believe was probably the ugliest thing in the world. It was an ugly mustardy-urine color. I gave a lopsided smile. Kaylie stood there grinning.

"Erm… that's… kind of… okay," I murmured.

Kaylie burst out laughing. "I can't believe you fell for that!" she gasped between gales of laughter. "I can't believe you would say yes to that! You must really hate confrontation if you were about to agree to this thing." I smiled and kind of shook my head no and yes at the same time. She was right, of course, but I didn't really want to admit it right now. I walked the other side of the rack, still grinning.

I began to shuffle around the dresses, nothing really catching my eye. They still had their entire stock of mustard dresses I think- I found about ten. What a waste of money, I thought. I looked around the store. It was big- and it would take forever to find anything. Just as I was about to turn back to my work, I spotted something at the end of the rack I hadn't investigated yet.

It was a piece of a Carribean sea blue- kind of periwinkle at the same time too. I knew I had seen that color before, and walked casually toward it, trying not to sound overeager and draw attention to myself. I pulled the dress off the rack, and held it up to myself in the mirror, stepping onto the little pedestal thing.

Now, I have to tell you. I never really thought too much of myself. I have drab black hair, and I'm small, and just kind of more of a plain Jane than anything else. I'm no- Lianna Baxter. She may be the nastiest person I have ever come into contact with, but she does turn heads. All the time. I'm waiting to catch Eric watching her, too.

But when I held that dress up, I had never thought more of myself. My black hair looked perfect, and my slight form didn't seem to matter. I pulled back my hair with my hair, sweeping it behind my shoulders. I realized where I had seen that color before- the dress was the same color as my eyes. It was meant for me.

"Kaylie, come here," I said, draping the dress off my arm and draping down off the pedestal. I didn't want to look completely girly, looking at myself in the mirror on a pedestal.

"I might have found a few," Kaylie said, looking at her finds as she walked towards me.

"I think I found the one I want already," I said. Kaylie looked up.

"What do you have here, Ellie!" Kaylie exclaimed, hanging her dresses back up on the rack. "Oh, hold it up in the mirror, Ellie!"

I stepped back up on the pedestal nervously, and held up the dress self consciously. "What do you think?" I asked, worried Kaylie wouldn't like my dress as much as I did.

Kaylie brought her hands up over her mouth. She gasped and exclaimed, "You look beautiful! Go try it on for real!" She pushed me into the dressing room without me saying a word of protest.

A few moments later, I stepped out in my dress, the wood floor feeling cold against my bare feet. The winter air chilled the room, and I shook a bit. I closed my eyes and stepped up into the mirror.

Kaylie looked shocked. "You look beautiful!" she said, sounding kind of watery, as if she was beginning to tear up. I felt like tearing up too. I had never looked at myself this way, and I liked the change.

"Oh, Ellie." I heard a voice from behind me, and it wasn't Kaylie. I turned around, and there was my mom, Aunt Jazz, and Danielle. My mom was smiling at me, and so was Aunt Jazz. Danielle looked positively furious, possibly from the fact I looked perfect for once, too. I smiled nervously, and spoke up for myself for once.

"This is the one I want," I said firmly.

"Of course," my mom said, and for once in my life, I felt proud of myself.


	11. Before the Ball

**Chapter Eleven**

**Before the Ball**

I stood in front of my mirror, in my casual clothes from school that day. It was just a little under two hours until the winter ball. I had gotten out of school early and gotten my hair done- pulled back, curled all the way down to my shoulders and twisted in the front. I had never had my hair done before- it felt like it was being pulled too tight, but I actually liked it. It made me feel fancy, like I was going to a fancy charity dinner at $1000 dollars a plate.

I looked at my dress, hanging off my door. I sighed. In an hour, Eric was supposed to come and pick me up- just like a real date! Not that I considered this a date. Erm… anyway…

I was just having a quiet moment right now, before everyone would want to take pictures of me and Eric, me and Kaylie, me and Danielle (She wasn't even coming! And they still want pictures of me with her!), and possibly even Deyton and Dylan with me too. I didn't mind that too much, because I knew they didn't really care if they got their pictures taken. I knew Danielle would want to worm her way into the pictures somehow. I sighed again. I couldn't wait to just get to the ball, and have this all be done, and just have a good time with Kaylie and Eric.

All of a sudden there was a knock at my door. "Come in," I said.

Danielle stepped in. "You look…" she began, "perfect."

I was shocked. Oh… my… gosh. Did my perfect, stuck up cousin just say I was perfect. Was this an attempt to be nice to me? I repeat: oh… my… gosh.

"Th-thank you," I said, smiling. I noticed Danielle was holding a large pink purse-like bag. "What's that?" I asked.

"I was wondering if you would let me do your makeup," she said.

I looked at the bag. It was HUGE. Danielle really wore that much makeup? I always thought she just looked that way. Wow… okay.

"Well, I wasn't really planning on wearing makeup," I said. Danielle looked honestly disappointed, and I felt- well, bad for her. "But I just didn't really know how to put on makeup myself. I would love for you to do my makeup for me." I couldn't believe I was saying it.

For the next half-hour, I watched as Danielle poured a pile of makeup the size of Mount Everest on my floor, and sifted through, picking out colors that were complimentary of my eyes and dress. She picked out frosty lipstick, and a whole bunch of other junk to put on my face I probably couldn't ever tell you the name of. But she paid attention, and was honestly working hard to make me look better. After finally brushing shimmery stuff on my cheeks and neck, Danielle said, "You're done. You can look now." She handed me a mirror.

I was yet again shocked. I looked even better than before. "Thank you, Danielle!" I exclaimed. And for some odd reason, I reached out and hugged my cousin, who was as shocked as I was.

"You're welcome," she said, smiling warmly. "You had better get dressed." And with that, she walked out.

Just as I turned and began primping my hair in the mirror, a shout came from downstairs.

"Danielle! Ellie! You have to come see this!" I recognized the voice as Deyton. I rushed down the stairs. Deyton was waiting, still wearing his lovely cap.

"You have to see this!" he shouted, looking more excited than I had seen him in awhile. Danielle and I rushed after him.

I entered the living room, only to see my whole family assembled there- my dad, his eyes glued to screen from the comfort of his chair, my mom, holding a pot fresh off the stove, Uncle Tucker, standing with a forgotten PDA in his hand, and my aunt Jazz and Dylan, sitting on the sofa with their mouths wide open. Danielle and I followed their view to the TV screen. My mouth dropped as well.

On the screen, the CNN anchor was shouting about a car chase, with a live chopper view of the car racing at eighty-five miles per hour down Route One. But the thing was- I knew the people driving.

When my relatives and Uncle Tucker arrived at my house, I knew something was missing. For some odd reason, my grandparents weren't there, which surprised me, considering how much they love to fawn over their grandkids. But now, I realized where they were.

There, on CNN, was the Fenton RV, being chased down the highway by wailing police cars. In the driver's seat, there was my grandfather, and beside him, my grandmother. I could tell because of their jumpsuits.

"Oh my gosh!" Danielle screamed. I had never heard the perfect child scream at anyone or anything. She was always cool, calm and collected. "What are Nanna and Granddad doing!" she screeched.

"I don't know!" Dylan squeaked, and everyone turned to look at him. Today, he had dawned a white polo shirt and a light blue sweater vest with khakis. He covered his mouth and sat down again, clearing his throat. "I mean…" he began again in a considerably more manly tone, "I don't know."

Everyone turned back to the TV.

I covered my mouth in shock. "I don't believe this, this isn't real… This isn't real… I'm so dreaming right now…" I murmured.

Just then, the doorbell rang.

"I can't take much more of this," Danielle said. "I'll get it."

Danielle walked into the hallway and opened the door. Eric burst in, in a brand new tuxedo, absolutely ecstatic. For once, he ignored Danielle.

"Ellie!" he yelled. "Turn to channel three! There's a wild police chase with two knuckleheads in an RV thinking they can outrun the cops, and it's right up here on Route One!"

Eric then saw that we already were tuned to that channel. "Isn't this awesome Ellie?" he said excitedly.

"No, it's not," I said, and Eric frowned. "Those knuckleheads are my grandparents!"

"What?" he said.

"My granddad is driving and my nanna is sitting next to him!" I said.

"You know the Route One drivers?" Eric said. "That's awesome!"

"Not so much, Eric," my dad said. "They're heading for our place."

"Oh my gosh," Eric said. "Yeah, but even at the speed they're going, they still won't be here for a long time."

"Which is why, in the mean time, you two have a ball to go to," my mom said. "Ellie, why don't you go get ready before Kaylie gets here?"

Anything to get away from my embarrassing grandparents. Even miles away, they could still embarrass me. I headed upstairs.

I pulled on my dress. I couldn't believe that was me in the mirror, with a perfect face and hair, and the most beautiful dress. And a date. I stood there, not believing that we had moved here just months ago, not believing that I had such good friends and that I was going to a dance. I grinned at my reflection, and a tear sprang to my eyes. But as I heard everyone shuffling around downstairs, I decided now wasn't the time to cry, especially because Danielle took so long picking out the perfect mascara (they all look the same to me, but to her, they were all different).

I opened my door, moving very slowly because of my high-heeled shoes. I smiled nervously as I walked down the stairs, worried what everyone would think of me.

Everyone was assembled at the bottom of the stairs. I noticed that even Kaylie had arrived- she looked beautiful with her hair all in curls, and in her new dress. It was a lovely sun-kissed orange color, and it matched her hair, making her look like she was glowing. And she probably was- she was smiling so avidly.

Everyone else looked pretty much shocked, and I think my mom was going to burst into tears in a second, but my eyes were on Eric. His green eyes glowed, reflecting the light of the chandelier, and I realized something that I hadn't noticed when he had come in- he wasn't wearing any glasses. He must have been wearing contacts, or just have been walking around blindly. I, personally, had never seen Eric without his glasses. And I guess, for that reason, I had never looked at his face and eyes very much- and never realized how- erm, well, "handsome" he was.

Just to clarify at this moment, I have nothing but platonic feelings for Eric.

But my gosh! He has gorgeous eyes. Perfect green- never seen anything like it in my life. The only thing that even came close to how green his eyes were is grass in the summer when the sun shines on it, and even then, I'm not sure if that could compare. I never noticed that he had extremely light freckles on his cheeks, either. And his smile- perfect. Wait, didn't he used to have braces? He did! And he got them taken off, all for the ball. Wow, if Kaylie knew what was going through my mind about Eric right now, I would never live it down.

"Holy crud, Ellie!" Kaylie exclaimed. "You look beautiful!"

I grinned. "You too!" I said. Total girl moment.

I turned to Eric. "And don't worry, Eric," I said. "You look beautiful as well."

Eric couldn't help but smile at that one. "You look very handsome, too," he said, trying to strike back. He was never that great at comebacks.

"Sorry to interrupt… but can I get pictures before we go?" my mom asked.

We all gathered together, standing as one. We were best friends, and no one could ruin that. I had my arm around Kaylie, and the other around Eric. Both of them put their arms around my waist. My mom snapped several pictures, before Eric poked me in the side and I burst out laughing. Kaylie and I nearly fell over, not being used to high heels.

Friends. Doesn't get any better than that.


	12. The Winter Ball

Chapter Twelve

The Winter Ball

My dad had to park down the block from the school because it was so crowded. It was amazing that a town with, like, twelve residents would have this big of a turnout. Maybe it was because everyone had huge SUV's- more specifically, pick-up trucks- in this town. And they were all lined up to get into the school. So instead of taking pictures outside the school, my mom took them in front of a snow covered hillside (which was much prettier than anything I had ever seen), and we decided to walk to the school.

Just as we were about to walk away, my mom pulled me aside.

"Ellie, I want to give you something I forgot to give you at the house," she said.

"I didn't forget anything, did I?" I asked, looking around.

"No, I want to give you something," she said. "Here. Wear this, it'll match your dress. It was- given to me in high school."

My mom then handed me what appeared to be a ring. Upon closer inspection, it was- yes, a ring! A school ring of some kind. It was the same color blue as my eyes and dress. I looked at the inscription inside.

"Who's Wes?" I said.

"For goodness sake, can't anyone hold it right!" my mom burst. I was a little scared for a moment as she turned it around and pointed at the inscription. "See, SAM! It says SAM!" She closed her eyes for a second, realizing what she just said.

"Sorry, it's just that people have been doing that for years," she said. "But I want you to have it. It matches, and it'll look nice."

"Who gave it to you?" I said.

"Well… he didn't necessarily give it to me…" she said. "But it looks fantastic on you." She was obviously trying to change the subject. "But it's yours now."

"Thanks Mom," I said. She smiled at me. "See you later." I began walking up the road with Kaylie and Eric.

My feet started to gradually kill me about halfway down the road. My feet were freezing in the winter weather, and the high heels were painful. And everyone was now walking, so we were getting pushed and shoved by every student in the school.

Three-fourths of the way down the road, a voice called out. "Hey, Kaylie!"

Every one of us turned to see Roger Woods, racing up the crowded sidewalk to meet us.

"Roger!" Kaylie exclaimed as he reached us. Roger glowed in the moonlight, looking almost like the moon itself, his face was so pale and his hair so white. Roger ran up and Kaylie hugged him (he obviously wasn't expecting it) and kissed him on the cheek, which he obviously wasn't expecting either. He obviously had never been kissed before by a girl, especially one as pretty as Kaylie. Eric and I couldn't help but stifle laughter.

"Shall we all go then?" Kaylie said, totally unfazed by Roger's shock.

We finally reached the school just as my feet were about to fall off. And I finally realized why the street was so backed up.

Someone had ordered a limo- which, by the way, is against the rules- and it was blocking the entire parking lot entrance. It was huge, and was Hummer-style all the way.

"Someone felt the need to make an entrance," Eric said.

"Ugliest thing I've ever seen," Kaylie said. "That can't be good for the environment."

"I guess we should just... go around?" I continued.

Eric, Kaylie, Roger and I went around the back of the limo. Kaylie stared at the exhaust pipe like it was her mortal enemy, and even Roger couldn't get her to stop ranting about the trees. But what made me mad was who stepped out of the huge gas-guzzling thing.

Lianna Baxter. That- really shouldn't put that in here.

She stepped out, looking all fantastic in her new expensive dress. I don't know how she got that rich, I heard her parents are as dumb as doornails. She was wearing pink, of course, her favorite. I hated the fact that she actually looked nice. I looked over at Kaylie, who looked just as mad as me. Eric looked confused, and Roger looked frightened.

"Ellie?" Eric said nervously. "Are you okay? Are you cold? You're bright red."

Roger looked too scared of Kaylie to say anything to her.

"Lianna Baxter," I said scornfully. But I was unlucky in that moment that she heard me.

"Hello!" Lianna said, trying to sound as fake nice as she could. She was even more fake than Danielle. "Lily, right? And your friend Maylie, right?"

"You know what our names are, Lianna," I said. "You're only making yourself look dumber than you already are."

Her face fell. "And I see you brought the captain of the computer club too! Oh, it's so nice to see him out of the tech room. How did you do it?"

Roger turned pink but said nothing. He was obviously used to being pushed around by people like Lianna. He looked away into the night sky. Kaylie reached over and squeezed his hand. Kaylie wouldn't sit and let Roger be made fun of. I had the feeling the reason she asked him to come _was _to get him out of the tech room.

"But who's your other friend?" Lianna said. She eyed Eric with interest, not recognizing him in his suit and contacts. "He must not go here. He isn't here with you, is he, Ellie?"

"You know who Eric is," I said. "And yes, he's my date. Go back to your own stupid jock date, Lianna. If he's as dumb as you, he'll probably need help reading the sign on the door. Let's go."

I couldn't believe I just said that! Me, who hates confrontation! I stood up for my friends! I need to breathe…

And with that, Eric, Kaylie, Roger, and I walked up the steps and into the school. After we were out of sight of Lianna, I broke down and took a deep breath. I couldn't seem to breathe.

"Ellie, you okay?" Eric said, putting his hand on my shoulder.

"I can't- believe- I just- did that!" I gasped, breathing in harder.

"Lianna really freaks you out that much?" Roger asked. "She makes fun of me all the time. I've just gotten used to it."

I gasped and gasped. Everyone stepped back to give me room, and Eric clung to my shoulder. I began to calm down, my chest loosening.

"No, Roger," I said. "I can't believe I just stood up to someone. I hate confronting people, but I actually stood up to Lianna!" I took one last deep breath.

"You better?" Eric asked.

"Yeah," I replied. "But, wow, that was weird. I just like left myself behind and said what I wanted to say…"

"You did good, Ellie," Kaylie said. "I think we're all proud of you."

I grinned. "Let's go," I said.

We all stepped inside the auditorium, which had been decorated for the Winter Ball. It wasn't fantastic, but it was still kind of cool. I had never been to a dance before… I didn't know there would be this much crepe paper. The disco ball made it look like it was snowing in the auditorium.

"Whoa… doesn't look like the cafeteria, does it?" Eric asked.

"Nope," Kaylie said.

I had never seen so many dancing people in one place. Wow, I've lived in a shell my whole life…

I watched the people dancing in their dresses and suits, but then my eyes fell on Lianna and her jock date, who I believed was captain of the football team.

I hated her soo much…

"Erm, Ellie, you wanna go get something to eat?" Eric asked me, trying to distract me.

It worked. I couldn't get worked up over Lianna now. "Sure."

"Madam?" Eric said, trying to be a gentleman like from the 1800's. He offered his arm. I played along.

"Let us go forth, good Sir," I said, taking his arm, and making him laugh. I sounded more like I was talking to a knight, but it was the thought that counted.

"You're terrible at that, you know?" Eric said as we crossed the room to the tables.

"I know," I replied. We both laughed. "Hey, where are Kaylie and Roger?"

"I don't know," Eric replied, and we both stopped out little act and looked for them.

"Ellie, look!" Eric laughed.

"What?" I followed the direction he was pointing, and I was soon laughing too.

Kaylie was trying to teach Roger to dance. He looked like he was totally shocked that she would even want to dance, and was promptly stepping on her feet. She flinched every time, but looked back up with a smile on her face, and corrected him.

"I can't believe she got Roger to dance!" I whispered to Eric.

"I can't believe she even got Roger to come TO the dance," Eric replied.

"Well, I can't believe any of you got dates!" a voice said behind me. It was Lianna, with her dumb date on her arm staring at her as if she was the most wonderful thing in the world. "Your friends and you are so pathetic that you asked each other to go to the ball, and the last of you asked a tech nerd that hasn't seen sunlight in four years! You should all just get married now, no one's going to take you later!"

I couldn't talk. I was so scared. I couldn't confront her twice in one night. But just as I was about to pull Eric away to the other side of the room, he spoke up.

"Shut up, Lianna," Eric said, staring right into her eyes. He seemed much taller, even though he wasn't much taller than Lianna or me. "You shouldn't talk anyway. All you did was go out onto the football field and pick the dumbest guy you saw. Then you came in here and started flirting with everyone else. At least my friends and I have some dignity. And what do you care if I brought Ellie to the dance? I asked her, and she said yes. And at least Kaylie has a date that's smarter than the gum on the bottom of his shoes."

Eric's eyes blazed. I had never seen him like that. Lianna looked shocked, but looked straight into his eyes blazingly as well.

"You'll pay for that, Cannon. Mark my words, you will," she whispered threateningly.

"Yeah, sure, call me when your little mind can comprehend that," Eric said, taking my arm again and marching off.

It took me a second, but I then turned and looked at him. Eric looked back at me with his perfect green eyes, filled with sympathy. I found myself staring back.

"Come on, Ellie," he said nicely. "I can't stay in here with _her._"

He then opened one of the back doors, leading onto a side yard of the school. It was totally empty, with only a sidewalk and a few lonely benches. But the most perfect part was the scenery- the moon was full that night, and the sky was a perfect midnight blue. The delicate lace branches of the trees were black against the sky, adding a small lace border to the bottom of the sky. The moonlight shone on the perfectly white snow, absolutely untouched, stretching out over a field. As Eric closed the door, you could only hear the music from inside. I couldn't breathe for a moment. I had never seen anything so perfect.

I exhaled. I now felt winded.

Eric knew what was going on. "Never seen anything like it," he said, taking a deep breath.

"Me neither," I whispered. I suddenly realized I was cold, and wrapped my shawl tighter around my shoulders.

"If your cold, we can go back inside," Eric said. I never wanted to leave this place.

"No!" I yelped. "Let's stay out here. Fancy crepe paper has nothing on this."

Eric laughed and grinned, showing off his newly straightened teeth. It made me smile too. We both walked along the pathway, and sat on the cold bench. But a cold butt was nowhere near as nice as the view, so I stayed put.

"Does it look like this every winter?" I asked.

"The fields always look fantastic in winter," Eric replied. "Especially the old Fairway Farm. That always looks like it's straight out of a storybook. But this- I have never seen anything like this in my life."

We sat there, sitting on that really cold park bench, looking at the view for a minute. I could still hear the dance music from inside, and I couldn't help but smile at the thought of Kaylie teaching Roger how to dance. I looked at Eric, and then I don't know what compelled me to do it, but I asked, "You want to dance?"

Eric's looked absolutely taken aback. His eyes were huge. "What?" he yelped.

"I didn't agree to come to the ball with you if I wasn't expecting to get at least one dance in," I said, trying to sound like I had least a little sense.

"It's just… I didn't really expect you to be the one to ask, I guess," Eric said, still a little surprised.

"Well, I just did," I responded.

Eric seemed to come to his senses a little. "But yeah, if you want to dance then I do too," he said, still a little unsure but now kind of confident.

"O-Okay then." I hadn't expected him to say yes.

He stood up. I did too.

"Erm…" I didn't know what to do. How do you slow dance with your best friend?

Eric made the first move, putting his hands on my waist. My stomach did several cartwheels and landed with a bang somewhere near my spleen. I put my arms around his neck, and he smiled. I did too. Eric just stood there.

"Eric… erm, you're supposed to lead," I said shyly.

"Oh, yeah!" he remembered, and began to lead the dance. "Sorry, I forgot."

"O-kay…" I said nervously.

I couldn't believe it. When I stood in front of the mirror earlier tonight, I had never imagined anything like this. I never, ever thought I would see something this beautiful, or be dancing with Eric by moonlight. This was the stuff I only read about in romance books. And it usually doesn't end well… usually the girl or the guy dies and the other one is all sad. But I couldn't think about that now… This was perfect…

I was cold. It had to be in the twenties that night, and I was wearing a dress and a shawl. I moved closer to Eric, who seemed to squirm slightly.

"W-what are you doing?" he asked.

"You're warm," I replied curtly.

"Oh." Eric relaxed. "Okay."

We stood there for a long time, or just what felt like a long time. Eric looked into my eyes, and I looked into his perfect green ones. For some odd reason, I felt warmer. It was like electricity flowing between Eric and I. It kind of scared me- but in a good way.

All of a sudden, a strange thing happened. I felt myself leaning in towards Eric, who leaned in as well. We both leaned closer and closer, and Eric leaned his head to one side. We were just millimeters apart now, and I could feel his warm breath on my nose. Our lips just barely brushed when-

"BEWARE!" a loud shrill voice came from behind us.

"What the-" I shouted another word after that, but I really shouldn't repeat it because my mom would kill me.

"Holy-" Eric shouted another word after that, too, which I also shouldn't repeat because his mom would kill _him._

A small girl with pigtails was floating near the door of the school kitchens. She was in overalls, and a hairnet, and had bright blue skin. My mind immediately went to the "ghost" I had dreamed up on the first day of school. Had that really been an illusion? I didn't think this was. I looked at Eric. He looked as shocked as me.

"Do you see what I see?" Eric asked.

"If you're seeing a small girl with blue skin floating near the cafeteria, then yes."

"Then yeah, you're seeing what I'm seeing," he said. But before we could turn and run, the whatever-it-was started talking again.

"I am Boxed Lunch!" the small floating blue girl screamed. "Daughter of the Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady!"

"Pardon me," Eric interrupted. "But who are the Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady?"

"If you hadn't been off in dreamland, you would know that they are my parents! They are some of the most feared ghosts in the GhostZone!"

"GhostZone?" I asked. I was utterly confused. There was not only a ghost in front of me, but a whole zone of them somewhere?

"It's where I come from!" Boxed Lunch screeched. "And I know exactly who you are! My parents have always talked of your family!"

I was confused. I knew my grandparents were into ghost hunting, but I didn't know there was actually anything for them to hunt… I always thought they were just a little senile in their old age.

"You're the halfa's daughter!" Boxed Lunch yelled.

I looked at Eric, who didn't know what Boxed Lunch was talking about either. "Daughter of the what-a?" I dared.

"The halfa!" Boxed Lunch said as if I didn't know a thing, which I didn't. "He's infamous in the GhostZone! Danny Phantom!"

The name rung in my head like a bell. Danny Phantom? As in Daniel Fenton, my own father? It couldn't be… it just didn't make sense… my dad was a person, not a ghost or a halfa or whatever Boxed Lunch was talking about.

"What exactly is a halfa?" I asked nervously, trying to get my facts straight.

"For the daughter of one, you sure don't know a lot about it," Boxed Lunch said, now confused as well. I wasn't sure what she was here to do, but I listened as she went on in her shrill little voice. "A halfa is a person who is half human, half ghost. The legend I heard about Danny Phantom was that he was the son of ghost hunters, but one day he bravely went into a GhostZone portal and turned it on. From that point on, he wasn't a human, and he wasn't a ghost. He could be whatever he wanted, and as he grew older, all the ghosts feared him. But no one's seen him in years. From what I've heard from my mom and dad is that he married one of his human accomplices, and they had their own halfa child. And that's all I've heard… But everyone still wonders when he's coming back."

That was a lot to absorb in thirty seconds. My dad a ghost, my mom his accomplice? My dad a ghost hunter, my grandparents not as senile as I thought? I looked at Eric, who looked as if he was about to faint. I clutched his arm tighter so that he wouldn't fall over.

"So you're saying…" I tried to speak, but everything was coming out a little high-pitched, but I continued, "that my dad is a kind of ghost-human hybrid type whatever, and that I am too? That doesn't even make any sense!"

"Whether it makes sense to you or not, that's what I've heard, and my parents swear it's true," Boxed Lunch replied. "I bet you have ghost powers just like your dad. But I don't really care, because you don't seem like you know a thing! So if you'll excuse me- I have work to do. Oh, and one last thing-BEWARE!" And with that, she swooped through the cafeteria door, where a lot of crashing boxes could be heard.

All of a sudden I felt light-headed, and I didn't even realize I was cold. All my blood was rushing to my head and everything was kind of spinning…

"Ellie, are you okay?" Eric asked, helping me to sit down on the park bench.

I held my head in my hands for a moment. I looked at Eric, shocked. "No, I'm not okay!" Everything came out high pitched, but I didn't care. "I was just told that my father is a human-ghost thing, I saw a small blue-girl ghost thing, I was told there is a whole zone of ghosts, and then I was told that I was a ghost too! So, no, Eric, I'm sorry, but I'm not okay!"

Eric's eyes were the size of half-dollars. He was totally shocked. "Well, it wasn't exactly old news to me either, you know," he replied.

"I don't care!" I said. "Now all I can think is wondering whether what th-that ghost thing said was true! Because it kind of fits, really, my dad is always gone for so long, he doesn't work, my grandparents do have a ghost portal… I-I guess I just never believed any of it was true. I always thought ghost-hunters were on a wild goose chase, but you know, I guess I was wrong."

"Alright then…" Eric said. "What do you say we go back inside then?"

I looked at Eric, appalled. "How can you just snap back to normal after just seeing a ghost?" I asked.

"I'm not snapping back to normal," he said. "I'm going to go get Kaylie. She's a lot better at this than I am."

"Than go!" I yelled. I was dearly sorry for snapping at Eric, but I just couldn't deal with this right now…

Had all that really just happened? Was I really about to kiss Eric, did I really just have my father's big mystery revealed to me? My head felt about to explode…

And it's not like I could just walk up to my dad and ask, "Hi Dad! Are you some sort of ghost-human? Because some floating illusion at the school dance told me you were!" Because what if it wasn't true? What if Eric and I were imagining things?

All of a sudden, Kaylie came running through the back door, leaving Roger behind, but with Eric on her heals.

"What happened, Ellie?" she asked. "Tell me everything." And I did. From the story of the ghost in my bedroom all the way up until now.

"And you're saying there's a ghost in our school, right now?" she asked. "Where?"

"Kitchens," I said. It had quieted down since Boxed Lunch had gone in there. Kaylie stood up and tiptoed over to the door. She carefully opened the door, and looked in. She turned back to me, her face pale. She slammed the door.

"There's a blue little person in there!" she whispered as if not to wake it up.

"Now you're about where I am right now," I said.

"You weren't lying!" she said. "You're right!"

"Yeah, I know," I said.

Kaylie sat down on the bench too. "What are we going to do?"

"I don't know," I responded. And I really didn't.


	13. An Unlucky Night

Chapter Thirteen

An Unlucky Night

Kaylie, Eric, and I didn't enjoy the ball at all after Boxed Lunch paid us a visit. After returning inside so we wouldn't freeze to death, Kaylie told Roger that we had a situation to take care of and that she would see him on Monday. I think the only reason he took it well was that Kaylie sealed her deal with another kiss on the cheek. She was good at getting Roger to do what she wanted, I have to admit.

For the rest of the night Kaylie sat with her head in her hands, and Eric and I paced until my feet hurt so bad that I had to sit down again. After about an hour and a half, when the dance was almost over, Eric sat down and asked the all-important question: "Now what do we do?"

Kaylie was the first to answer. "We wait."

"Wait for what?" I asked.

"We wait until we can prove what we heard or not," she said. "You know, research it."

"But what do we do in the meantime?" Eric asked.

"I guess we just act normal, forget about it for awhile," I said, coming to my senses. "And we all have to agree: parents never know, at least until we learn more."

"Agreed," Eric and Kaylie said together.

"But you guys have to come over tomarrow, and we'll do all the research we can," I said.

"But the chess tournament is tomarrow!" Eric whined. Kaylie and I raised our eyebrows. What? Eric turned red.

"Then come over afterward!" I said. "Just make sure you come! We'll need to check out books, we'll need to use the computer, and all that stuff. And if it comes to it, we'll have to spy on my dad."

"Alright then," Eric said.

"Sounds good," Kaylie said.

"But we'll have to go to the library, because my whole family is here for Christmas, and we'll have either Danielle leaning over our shoulders or worse, my grandparents trying to help," I said, shuddering at the thought.

"That's fine by me," Kaylie agreed.

"Yeah, I love the library! The librarian there knows me," Eric exclaimed. He's so pathetic. He goes to the library so much they know him there.

"Oh, Eric," I said sympathetically. Kaylie looked at him sadly too. "You have no clue how geeky you are."

"Hey!" he exclaimed. "But, yeah, I guess you're right…"

"There you go," Kaylie said. "Come on, let's get out of here... I bet your parents are waiting for us, Ellie."

"Do you think they'll have brought your grandparents?" Eric said excitedly, teeming with excitement at the fact that he might get to meet the Route One high-speed chasers. I groaned.

"I forgot all about them!" I whined. "I can't believe they're going to be here for the rest of the year! That is, if they weren't arrested," I joked. Eric and Kaylie laughed. Like my grandparents would be arrested.

Kaylie and I wrapped our shawls around our shoulders to keep us warm, and the three of us began marching out of the cafeteria, where everyone else was gathering up their things to go home as well. We descended the steps. Many SUV's were lined up along the school parking lot (Lianna's stupid limo hadn't come yet), but out little hybrid car was nowhere to be seen.

"They're not here yet," I sighed. It was getting colder, and I was still cold from being outside earlier.

A low grumbling sounded in the distance. "What's that noise?" I asked. Kaylie and Eric shrugged. I listened more intently.

"Sounds like an engine," Eric said.

"What a waste of fuel," Kaylie spat.

All of a sudden, the bright red sports car came flying up the street. I recognized my Uncle Tucker in the drivers' seat. Now completely confused, I watched as he pulled up. The rest of the school was fascinated as well- living in such isolation all their lives, I don't think any of them had ever seen such a flashy car before, even a little rich girl like Lianna. Even her parents weren't this rich. I smiled, realizing this would make me cool for a little while- not that I cared about popularity or anything.

Kaylie and Eric watched too. Uncle Tucker pulled right up next to us. Now everyone was staring- all the kids had come outside to see this sports car.

"Hey, Elle," Uncle Tucker said to me. I looked around, a little uncomfortable in the spotlight, before responding.

"Uncle Tucker!" I whispered, but the crowd was practically silent with anticipation and I could still be heard. "What are you doing here!"

"It's a long story, Elle," he said to me. "Why don't you and your friends get in and I'll explain on the way home?"

"Alright then…" I said, wondering what could be going on that would cause this strange turn of events. I mean, Uncle Tucker coming to pick me up in his brand new (most likely rented, but still totally awesome) car- it wasn't exactly a daily occurrence. I wondered where my parents were, and my weirdo cousins and aunt. And did my grandparents even get there yet?

But despite these thoughts in the back of my mind, I still watched as a very happy Kaylie and an absolutely ecstatic Eric crawled into the backseat. And I can't say that I didn't feel a rush as I climbed into the front seat of the car and listened to the roar of the engine as Uncle Tucker sped off into the night, with my entire class watching.

The air was freezing cold with the top down. It whipped right through my hair, completely displacing the perfectly hair-sprayed curls- but when you ride in a car like that, you begin not to care. I reached up and took out all the bobby pins, letting the curls fall altogether. Kaylie did the same, and we both let our hair fall back in the wind, mine as dark as the sky and Kaylie's as red as the sun. Eric didn't seem to be noticing anything anymore. He was so entranced by what he was riding in that I could have hit him over the head with a hammer and he wouldn't have noticed.

"Not shabby, huh?" Uncle Tucker asked.

"Yah think?" I responded. I couldn't stop smiling. He pressed the gas petal harder and we almost flew down the road. Kaylie screamed happily and I joined in.

It was so surreal. I had never seen boring old Specterton speed by in such a blur, and I had never felt so alive. But then I thought of something, and turned to Uncle Tucker.

"Hey, how come you're picking us up instead of my parents?" I asked.

"Can't an uncle pick up his niece in his car at her school dance?" he said. It was a typical answer of someone trying to hide something. I cocked my head with a disbelieving expression on my face. He had never been that great at lying.

"Fine, but if your parents asked, you forced it out of me," he said. I smiled.

"Deal, just tell me what's up here."

"Now don't flip out Elle," Uncle Tucker said. "But after you left for your dance, the police set up some spikes up on Route One. They blew out the tires of your grandparents' RV, and arrested them. Your cousins, Jazz, and your parents are down at the county jail trying to bail them out now."

"WHAT!" I screamed, louder than I ever had before. Kaylie's mouth fell open, and Eric came out of his trance. "Ho-How? How- what- why- WHAT?" I stuttered.

"Now I told you not to flip out…" Uncle Tucker said.

"Flip out? Fl-Flip out?" I screamed. "This is beyond flipping out! When you said not to flip out, I thought it was like Deyton-fell-down-the-stairs-trying-to-skateboard-and-he-had-to-go-the-hospital kind of don't flip out, or your-parents-have-decided-to-move-to-Venezuela don't flip out, but this, this is beyond flipping out!" I took a huge breath of cold air, then another, and soon I was repressing an asthma attack.

"Ellie, calm down! Breathe, woman, breathe!" Kaylie cried. I felt both her and Eric's hands on my shoulder.

"So, where are we going?" I asked, finally able to breathe, but still in total shock.

"I was told to take you home," Uncle Tucker said.

"Oh, we're not going home, we're going to jail, I refuse to be left out of this!" I said loudly. "How could they not tell me? I had my cell phone!"

"Maybe they knew how you'd take it, and were afraid they'd have another family emergency if you found out," Eric said. I turned, giving him the sternest, most angry look I could muster. He took his hand off my shoulder and leaned back in fear. "Please don't kill me," he whimpered.

"Now, I already broke orders by telling you that they're in jail, I can't take you there, your parents would kill me," Uncle Tucker said.

"Now, Uncle Tucker," I said nicely. I knew what I was doing now. "You know that we can do this one of two ways. We could go home, and I will pester and cry and yell at you until you take me, or we can just go now, and I can save my breath."

He looked at me. I knew that I would not stoop to that bratty level, but he didn't. I simply stared into his eyes, trying to look totally serious.

"Fine," he agreed. I grinned in triumph. I would never have followed through with my threats, but it was nice to know that I was a believable liar. "But what about your friends? I have to take them home."

"No you don't!" Kaylie cried. "I'll just call my parents and tell them! I sneak up to bed when they're asleep anyway, I don't think they'd care. I want to stay with you, Elle."

"Yeah," Eric agreed. "And besides, how many times will we get to meet the Route One drivers?" I took a swipe at him, but he leaned back too far and I couldn't get him.

"I don't want to inconvenience your parents…" Uncle Tucker began, but both Kaylie and Eric had already whipped out their cell phones and began dialing.

I listened.

"Hey, Mommy!" Kaylie exclaimed. "I was just wondering if I could stay with Ellie tonight…"

"Hannah!" Eric yelled into his phone. "What are you doing up? Did Dad let you have Sprite again?... He did! What is he, stupid?... I don't care about your new dolly! Hannah, Hannah- get Mom, Hannah!"

"No, I didn't have any soda at the dance… I'll check my blood sugar later… No, don't save any soy burgers for me, I'm full…" Kaylie's conversation continued.

"Mom! Hey, Mom, can I stay with Ellie tonight?" Eric continued. "No, no, Mom, you're getting the wrong idea here! I'm not even dating Ellie!... No, let me explain. She's having a family emergency and Kaylie and I want to stay with her… Mom, I swear, there's nothing between Ellie and I!... Yes, yes, I promise, nothing is to happen, especially tonight. Thanks. Bye." He hung up and slumped back in his seat.

"Yeah, okay, I promise I won't eat anything I'm not supposed to. I'll be back later. I love you, Mommy, bye-bye." Kaylie hung up and smiled. "I can stay!" she exclaimed.

"Me, too," Eric said.

"I don't even want to know what your mom was making you promise," I said to Eric. He gave me a fake smile that quickly faded.

"She just got the wrong idea…" he said. "It's nothing. I straightened it out." Kaylie and I laughed and smiled at each other.

"Everyone ready?" Uncle Tucker said. "We're off to jail then."

I was happy to have Uncle Tucker, Kaylie, and Eric there as we sped off into the night. After all, it had been a very unlucky night.


	14. We're Off to See the Baliff

Chapter Fourteen

We're Off To See the Baliff…

We arrived at the county jail around eleven at night. I was definitely tired, what with flipping out about my grandparents, finding ghosts, and finding out I might be one myself. But as we pulled up, and the awesome doors of the car lifted up like the Batmobile, I jumped out and rushed inside with all the enthusiasm of cheerleader, Eric and Kaylie on my tail.

I burst inside. The building was extremely small, located behind the county office building- I think it might have been the garage at one time, and they just decided to push the county's criminals back there. There was only a little dirt parking lot, and Uncle Tucker stuck around outside dusting off his car. The lot was just barely big enough to fit our little hybrid, Aunt Jazz's rental, the baliff's car, and Uncle Tucker's sports car. The building was made out of dull concrete, with an ancient glass door with the county seal on it. The inside wasn't a whole lot better. To my left was an oak desk probably from colonial times, with an extremely fat man in a green uniform munching on beef jerky plopped behind it. He looked from about the same time period.

To my right was what I was looking for. There were several benches underneath an old picture of some houses in the town, where my entire family was seated. Dylan was slumped in the corner, dozing, Danielle was sitting up like a China doll, Deyton was laying across one of the benches with Aunt Jazz near his head, messing with his hair. My mom took a small chair in the middle of the two benches while my dad paced up and down in-between them.

In the front of the room were the cells. There were three tiny little cells with metal bars just like in the Old Westerns. The first was empty, the second was occupied by a rather drunk man shouting about cheese, and the third contained my grandparents. There they were, the cause of the problems. Sitting there, in their old jumpsuits, their hair graying but their faces not showing their age. They were both smiling contentedly, not at all like speeding criminals that had gotten caught.

"Ellie!" Granddad shouted. Everyone swung around to look at me, and jumbled questions were thrown at me.

"I thought I told you to take her back to the house!" my mom yelled at Uncle Tucker as he came inside.

"Hey, she begged, and I couldn't get her to give up," he replied, backing away slightly.

"And your friends! Won't their parents be worried about them?" Mom asked.

"Already taken care of, Mrs. Fenton," Kaylie said sweetly. Sometimes I think he parents raised her too polite… not that she's exactly always polite to Eric and I, but that's with us. She's always polite to adults. Kaylie then took a seat on the benches (conviently right next to Deyton; I guessed that she had another motivation that caused her to want to stay, wink, wink!) and Eric followed, sitting nervously on the end. He was a little scared of my family.

I turned to my grandparents. "What were you doing, speeding on the highway like that? Didn't you hear the sirens of the police?" I said, approaching my granddad.

"I just wanted to get there and see you, sweetie, and wish you a Merry Christmas, and maybe see you before you went off to your ball," Granddad said, putting his hand on my cheek. "We wanted to see our littlest Granddaughter, but you're not so little anymore. You look all grown up in your dress, and you probably are."

I gave a small smile. He knew how to get to me… I hated that. "Why didn't you stop when you heard the sirens then?"

"Your grandfather," my grandmother began, "took out his hearing aid when we drove through Ohio and forgot to put it back in. I tried to tell him to stop, but he couldn't hear me either."

I sighed. That was so- them.

"Now we're stuck here for the rest of the night," Nanna said.

"And I'll be with you," I said. I was a sucker for my grandparents. I turned, walked over, and sat down between Eric and Kaylie, who was chatting up Deyton by now. He had sat all the way up and was watching her intently. After all, she did look very pretty in her dress. I turned to Eric.

He smiled at me. I grinned back. "You probably don't think much of my family right now," I said.

"Are you kidding?" he asked. "You have the coolest family I've ever met!"

"What?" I was shocked.

"Yeah, your family is so different from mine," he continued. "My grandfather was a dentist, my grandmother worked in a deli. My aunt and uncle work at insurance company, and my cousins can't play a board game without reading the entire manual! And there's of course no talking during the game, Susan has to concentrate…"

"Really?" I had never heard of a normal family. Was everyone like that? Was that what my life would be like if I didn't have these knuckleheads?

"So you would rather spend time with us?" I said.

"I would rather spend five minutes with you than a week with my family," he said. I wasn't sure how to respond to that. After a few minutes of silence, I yawned.

"Tired?" Eric asked.

I hadn't realized how tired I was. I guess adrenaline had kept me awake and alert, but now the entire night was weighing down upon me and I didn't think I could stay awake much longer.

"Much," I replied. And for some reason, I laid my head down on his shoulder. Eric put his head on top of mine as well, and the next thing I knew, I was dreaming of that night… only things were different. Boxed Lunch never showed, and I got to finish my, erm… moment with Eric. But before I knew it, I was being shaken awake.

"Honey, honey, wake up…" I blinked. The blurry outline of my mother flickered before me. I blinked again, and she became clearer.

"What?" I asked. The last thing I remembered was leaning my head on Eric's shoulder. I looked around… my cousins were stretching as if they too had fallen asleep, my Aunt Jazz rushing them along, while Uncle Tucker and my dad sipped coffee. The large bailiff was filling out paperwork. Kaylie and Eric were no longer here. "Where'd Eric and Kaylie go?"

"Eric's mom came and picked them up around two," my mom said. "You get enough sleep?"

I blinked my eyes. I was sore from sleeping on a bench in a formal gown, but I was otherwise ready to go. "Yeah," I replied.

"Good, because it's almost seven and your grandparents are going to be let out of jail," my mom continued. I smiled- finally, we weren't the freaky family that spent the night in the police station anymore!

The large balding bailiff approached us. "I just need you to sign here-" my mom signed next to where my father's signature was already- "and here." She signed again. "Thanks for your cooperation- I know it's been a long night." And with that, he pulled a large metal ring out of his pocket with what could have been thousands of keys on it, picked one, and unlocked both my grandparents.

There was a frenzy of "Nanna, Granddad, Mom, Dad, Jack, Maddie!" as my entire family swooped in upon them, encircling all of us in one giant hug. I had never felt this close to my family before, and I guess Eric was right- we weren't like any other family. And I would never change that.


	15. Danny Phantom

Chapter Fifteen

Danny Phantom

By the time we got home, it was already around eleven in the morning. Deyton insisted upon stopping at I.H.O.P. (he said it was to celebrate that Nanna and Granddad were getting out of jail, but I would bet money that he just wanted to avoid my mom's cooking). I changed in the bathroom into my mom's clothes that she kept in her trunk. They had been there a long time and smelled rather musty, but I was thankful to be out of my dress, even though I still had to wear the killer high heels.

I had completely forgotten about the deal that I had made with Eric and Kaylie about going to do research. In fact, I had mostly forgotten about Boxed Lunch too. So I was fairly surprised to see both of them, bundled up in winter coats, sitting on my front porch when I arrived.

"About time you got here!" Kaylie burst. "We're freezing our butts off out here!" Eric nodded along.

"I'm sorry!" I cried. "I forgot!"

Before Kaylie could burst out at me, Eric replied, "It's okay, Ellie. Why don't we just get going?" Kaylie stared at him as if he were nuts. She had obviously wanted more out of the fight- hoping maybe I'd treat to lunch or something. She looked from Eric, to me, rolled her eyes, and agreed.

"I guess so," she replied.

"Just come inside- I need to change." I grabbed my dress from inside the Honda, bustled inside after my family, Eric and Kaylie at my heels.

Soon we were all standing out front of the public library. It was extremely small, and I really wouldn't have called it a library myself. It was nothing compared to the one back in Amity Park, which was large with many new hi-tech computers, and was constantly buzzing with students. At this one, no one had even bothered to scrape the snow off the sidewalk entry. It was a two-story cottage-type home, with a plaque that read "Public Library- established August 15, 1889" on the front. That was probably the first and last time someone had taken care of the building, too, I couldn't help but thinking. Ivy snaked up the gutters and infested the walls, and the paint on the banister was beginning to peel. The building was made out of chipped brick, and the woodwork had paint so faded I wasn't exactly sure what color it was originally. But Eric looked up at it with a kind of affection that I had never really seen before- a pure innocent love of the building that made it seem a little more homey.

Eric was the first to step into the deep snow, leading the way up to the door. He opened it, and a bell on the door made a happy Christmas-y jingling noise. There was a front desk, pretty much the same as the one at the jail, with papers scattered about it, along with a typewriter. I could have sworn we had just stepped back in time about a century. The wall behind the desk was filled with bins and bins with labels on them- years and years worth of county newspapers. A card catalog sat lazily at the end of the room. The rest of the walls were completely covered in dusty books. A large iron staircase flowed into the room from an upper story. The place showed no signs of life. I was just about to ask Eric and Kaylie if we should come back another time when-

There was a sudden spattering of footsteps hastily running down the stairs. I looked towards the staircase, where a pair of women's legs could be seen trotting down the twisting stairs. The woman herself touched down on the floor just a moment later.

"Good morning, Miss Willens," Eric said politely.

Now, just picture what you think a librarian in Specterton would look like. You are probably harboring the same image I was- one of a doughty old woman in several sweaters with nothing better to do but organize old books all day. But Miss Willens was nothing of the sort. She couldn't have been a day over twenty-seven, with long dark brown hair and a perfect sweeping face. She wasn't built like how I imagined either- the librarian I pictured was rather large and stooped. But no. She looked like a supermodel, standing almost six feet and no fatter than a beanpole. I could now kind of see why Eric came here so much. He wasn't nearly as innocent as I thought- he stared at Miss Willens the same way he had Danielle that one day. What was with him- was he some kind of pervert? I felt the same anger I did that day Danielle arrived swell up in me again.

"It's more like the afternoon, now, Eric," Miss Willens replied in an even voice as pretty as she was. "Who are your friends?"

"This is Kaylie-" Kaylie gave one of her sweet grins- "and Ellie." I gave a rather stiff nod and something that kind of vaguely resembled a smile.

"Oh, I've most certainly heard of you," she said. I wasn't quite sure if she was addressing both Kaylie and I or not, because she said it more to me than anything else, and her eyes sparkled. I wondered if she wasn't saying something.

"We were just here to look at the catalog of newspapers," Eric said. "But we need to use the computer because the newspaper we're looking for is in Oregon."

"Well, you know where the computer is, Eric," she said. "I'll be in the back room if you need me."

"Thank you," Eric said, and lead Kaylie and I up the spiraling stairs.

"I didn't know that you talked about us," Kaylie said. She gave me a knowing look.

"Oh, shut up," Eric replied. Kaylie grinned.

The top room was very small. It housed a few more desks, with, I was surprised to see, brand new flat-screen Gateway computers.

Each of us took a computer. Kaylie turned around. "What exactly are we looking for though?" she asked. "We don't exactly have a lot to go on, Ellie."

I sighed. "We're looking for everything and anything related to this Danny Phantom, and anything related to him. Pictures would be fantastic." I thought for a moment. "I guess we should all try different things. Eric-" Eric glanced over- "I want you to find newspaper articles from Amity Park. Kaylie-" Kaylie stood at attention- "I want you to see if we can get anything off the internet. Google searches can be more helpful than you think. And me- I'll search picture and video archives."

"Yes sir!" Kaylie exclaimed, saluting me. I gave her a look, and she turned around and began pulling up the internet. After that, Eric knew better than to mess with me too. I was very serious about this- I mean, I could be discovering the most well-hidden, biggest family secret in the history of family secrets.

I pulled up the video archives icon. Carefully, I typed the name "Danny Phantom" into the search engine.

I was so lucky that day. Right there, on the front, was a picture from the Amity Park newspaper of the ghost. He was flying across the street, off into the sky. I stared at the face- although it was slightly blurry, I could still recognize it anywhere. I was staring right into the face of my father- and remarkably, I could see a lot of myself, there, too. I could feel someone's breath on my shoulder, and turned around to see Kaylie standing right over me.

"That looks just like you, Ellie," she whispered. Eric came and investigated.

"Oh my gosh," he murmured.

"I think we've confirmed something," I said. "My dad is a ghost- my dad is Danny Phantom."

I couldn't sit still. I pushed past Eric and Kaylie, breathing hard. I began pacing. "I just don't believe it," I whispered. "How could he not tell me? How could he not tell me what he did, and what happened? How could he keep this a secret all this time?" I was just so flustered- I hadn't really believed Boxed Lunch, but now the evidence was staring me right in the face and I couldn't deny it. I stopped pacing, and turned to my friends, and sighed. They looked at me, ready for me to flip out. But I really didn't feel like it. I was tired of flipping out over every little thing. There were more important things to worry about now.

Wordlessly, Eric reached over and took my hand. I sighed again, a little more relaxed. Kaylie's eyes were huge, but she didn't say anything, afraid of ruining the moment. Eric squeezed my hand- I squeezed back, but let go, and sat down.

I closed out the picture. Kaylie put her hand on my shoulder. "You wanna keep looking?"

"I kind of have to, now," I replied. I scrolled down the page- most were pictures similar to the one we had just seen. But then I scrolled across the title "Video- CNN- 'Is our ghost-boy really a ghost?'" That got me curious. I clicked, and the Media Player began loading. Kaylie and Eric watched intently.

An anchor behind a news desk stared back out of the screen. "And now, right out of Amity Park, Oregon, we have a new report of the ghost boy spotted there. The local news station has captured video of what appears to be the ghost boy, and it might suggest more evidence that he is not really a ghost. But now, lets go to our ghost expert from Boston College, Dr. Albert Yellen."

I was extremely confused, but continued to watch. A balding man in his late fifties came up on the screen. His voice sounded dull and boring- just like a science professor.

"Well, good morning, Tim. My studies have shown that this videotape might actually reveal that our ghost might not be a ghost after all."

On the screen, there was a very shaky picture as if someone had been running to keep up with the ghost kid. It was an alleyway. All of a sudden, behind a turn, there was a flash of light, and the ghost boy flew out over the top of the building. Had I just seen a halfa transform into a ghost?

The old professor was back on. "Now, according to a new theory after reviewing the tape, we believe that this film is showing that the ghost boy is really a human transformed into a ghost-"

I closed the window. I didn't need to hear more. Eric and Kaylie looked at me.

"I guess that confirms it," I said. "There is such a thing as a halfa, and my dad is one of them."

They both looked at each other, then back to me. Kaylie then dared to ask, "So, do you believe what Boxed Lunch said? That you're a ghost-halfa-type-person, too?"

I looked at my feet. How could I be a halfa? I didn't really feel all that different. But, how would I know if I felt different if I only knew one way of how to feel? It was all very confusing. I looked back up into their curious faces. "I don't know," I said. "I guess we'll just have to wait and find out."

Author's Note: Dear readers,

I'm so glad that you like the story! Now, if you want to find out more about it, check out my xanga. It's  . If you sign my guestbook with a question about what will happen in the story, I will tell you what will happen. Kind of like a spoiler lab- I just want to see if it will work. And if you have a xanga, feel free to show it to me! Thank you so much for reviewing, I am very glad that you like my story. I will try to update soon.

Love much,

Rachel


	16. A Mysterious Stranger

**A/N: **I'm sorry, but the web-address didn't show up on my last chapter. It's www dot xanga dot com slash racheld815. Sorry for any inconvenience. The link is also in my profile.

Chapter Sixteen

A Mysterious Stranger

I couldn't sleep that night. I tossed, and I turned, and I couldn't keep my eyes closed for more than five seconds. I couldn't help but wonder about my dad being a halfa, and couldn't help but wonder if I was too. That's enough to keep anyone awake.

I looked at the clock. It was around one in the morning- it was already Sunday. We were supposed to go Christmas shopping today. I felt like groaning, but then remembered the ancient thin walls of the house and the vast number of people staying here. I looked out my window. Gentle untouched snow lay like a crisp white sheet over the backyard.

Now, I have never really known anything good to happen after a certain hour. One AM- when the murderers and burglars and everyone else come out. But, I was tired, and my wits were dulled, so I didn't think twice when I had a sudden impulse to get a breath of that fresh air.

I flipped the covers off of myself, and twisted off the bed. I was shocked as my feet hit an ice-cold hardwood floor. But I still wanted that fresh air, and continued to sneak into the hallway.

I was particularly grateful that the house was as big as it was tonight. Almost everyone could have their own room (except Dylan and Deyton, who had to share, and Nanna and Granddad, who were a couple and had to share). I snuck past Danielle's door, and could hear Uncle Tucker's snoring from down the hall. I sat down on the top stair and slid down on my butt so as not to make any noise.

I finally reached the downstairs foyer. I crept over to the closet and put on my boots and a jacket. The moonlight shone through the stained glass front door, creating deep jewel tones on the dull wood floor. I pulled it open, careful not to make it squeak, and stepped out onto the front lawn.

Kaylie's house looked dead. There was no light or sign of life, not even a flickering TV. I looked up and down the street- no cars. There were no houses other than Kaylie's and mine in sight, creating a very creepy isolated feeling. I was probably the only one awake for miles around. It gave me a weird feeling of being alone, but it didn't scare me. It actually gave me a feeling of independence as I followed the path around the house into the backyard.

Pine trees stared back and me. Hills and hills of them stretched as far as I could see, black against the purple sky. I couldn't believe that I had ever resisted moving out here- it was so full of majestic sights. As I watched, I could have sworn that I saw a rustle in the brush. I guessed it was a deer- a harmless deer. Nothing to worry about.

My mind turned itself back to the whole halfa thing. I thought for a moment, the gears in my mind turning as fast as they could go. Now, my dad is a halfa. He might have passed it down to me- at least that Boxed Lunch character thought so. He could transform from human to ghost in just moments. Now, if I was a halfa- could I change like that, too?

Now's the time to do it, I told myself. You're alone, and if it doesn't work, then you can pass it off as a bad dream in the morning. I stepped farther into the snow, feeling excitement course through my veins.

I just stood there. How do you change from person to ghost? I was just thinking that when I heard the rustle again. I passed it off as a very annoying deer and continued to concentrate.

I closed my eyes. Work, I said to myself. If you're a halfa, change! Work, halfa genes! Work, work, work! My eyes were squeezed shut and my face screwed up as I tried with every ounce of my being to just make it work, already.

"It'll never work if you do it like that, you know," a voice said from my left, where I had heard the rustling. And unless deer could talk, I guessed that I was in very big trouble.

I opened my eyes and turned. There before me stood a woman, about the same age as my parents I guessed, maybe a little younger. She was dressed for winter in boots, jeans, a large jacket, and a matching hat. She had shining blue eyes that looked extremely familiar, but I was too scared to figure out where I had seen them. Long dark hair spilled out from under her hat. As I contemplated her face, she seemed even more familiar than ever.

"What do you mean? Why are you here?" I asked timidly.

"I'm here to help you," she replied calmly. "And what I mean is that you will never turn become a ghost like that."

"How did you…" I was at a lost for words.

"Let's just say that I have experience." The woman smiled. "Why don't you just trust me?"

"Why would I trust you?" I asked, scared. "You're just someone I don't know who walked out of the forest and read my thoughts. I think I have every reason not to trust you right now."

"Listen to me, Ellie," she continued.

"How do you know my name? Who are you?" I was frozen with fear.

"Listen to me," she said seriously. "I know who you are- you're Sam and Danny's daughter. And you found out you're a halfa- listen, I just want to help you. I know your parents."

"Like that isn't the stalker catchphrase," I replied.

"Do you want to know how to be a halfa or not?"

I didn't answer that. I wasn't sure exactly what to say- I wanted to know what would happen, but I didn't exactly want to learn from this woman.

She took my silence as a yes, I suppose. "Close your eyes," she said. I looked at her as if she was crazy. I wasn't about to let my guard down like that. "Just do it."

Stubbornly, I did. I was very uneasy, every muscle in my body tense.

"You have to relax, or it won't work, Ellie," the woman said. Slowly, I loosened my shoulders.

"Now, empty your mind. Empty it of every thought you have about me and about ghosts…" I tried as hard as I could.

"Before, you were telling yourself just to become a halfa. You were only concentrating on making the process work- you can't do that. I just want you to think of ghosts. Picture yourself becoming a ghost- you have to really believe that you can become a ghost. You can't doubt yourself. Just believe that you can, picture that you can."

I tried, as hard as I could, to picture myself becoming a ghost. I focused on ghosts themselves. But the biggest image that came to my mind was the one of Danny Phantom, flying over the city in that photo- and all of a sudden, a cold ripple flowed through my body. Like a cold breeze on a winter night- which made me wonder if it really was just that. But then, I heard-

"Open your eyes," the woman's voice said softly. I did.

The woman standing before me was no longer the same. Her black hair was now bright white, and looked like solid moonlight in the night. Her eyes were a glowing bright green, nothing that I had ever seen on this earth. And she was now in a black and white jumpsuit with an odd emblem I had never seen, but she was staring at me proudly.

"Don't look at me- look at yourself." She grinned.

I looked. A real winter breeze whipped by, and my hair flipped into my eyes. But I was shocked to see that it, too, was a solid moonlight white. I too, was wearing the same black and white jumpsuit with the same emblem. And, although I couldn't see it, I probably had the same out-of-this-world green eyes.

"I did it," I breathed.

"Why- did you not believe that you could?" the woman asked.

"I…I don't really know," I stammered, not sure what I had thought would happen. "Who are you?"

"I already told you- I'm an old friend of your parents," she repeated. I didn't press her farther- she obviously wasn't going to tell me.

"Now, close your eyes again," she said.

"Why?" I asked. I had already learned to become a ghost.

"You do want to change back, don't you?" she asked. I guess that was a necessary part of it, so I did.

"Now picture yourself as a human again, and imagine changing from ghost to human, then count to ten," she instructed.

I did. I pictured my normal self, with my black hair and blue eyes, and felt the same winter-y breeze sweep up my body. I then counted, one… two… three………… ten. I opened my eyes.

The woman was no longer there. I swung around in circles, my boots slipping in the snow, but she was nowhere to be seen. I would have called out her name, but she had never told me what it was- where had she gone?

But I had changed back to normal. I was no longer a ghost- I was Ellie Fenton again. All thanks to that mysterious stranger, whoever she was.

I took one last sweeping glance around the yard, looking for the woman, turned on my heel, and headed back into the house.

I managed all the way back to my room. But as I passed by the mirror on my dresser, I stopped and looked- and noticed something.

Whoever that woman was, she looked just like me. No wonder she had seemed familiar- she had a face very similar to mine. A few minor differences- her eyes were bluer, her face more sharp- but other than that, I couldn't really pick out anything different. How strange… did every ghost look like me, or something?

I laid down in bed. I looked over at my night-table, at the picture taken a few years ago of my parents and I at the beach. I looked at my mother, then to a ten-year-old me, and then to my father, and noticed something. The woman had been a very near to being my father's clone, except for the fact that she was a woman and slightly younger. But the same eyes, same face, same hair, same build- there was no doubt about it. She looked more like my father's sister than my Aunt Jazz ever did. She could've been his twin. And as I finally drifted off to sleep, I couldn't help but feel a cloud of suspicious circumstances float around me- odd things were happening, and I was determined to get to the bottom of them.

A/N (again): Thank you to all who reviewed! You guys are great! And when I logged on, I was shocked to see that this story had over two thousand hits! Keep it coming, guys. Thank you supporting me and this story. It really makes me feel great. Just wanted to say thank you- and tell you all how totally and completely AWESOME you are! Read on!

Love much,

Rachel


	17. A Friend's Gift

Chapter Seventeen

A Friend's Gift

I woke up the next morning to Phanny licking my face with her small rough tongue. I scratched her between her ears and turned over; I was very tired. She started to meow at me. I shushed her and rolled onto my stomach.

Yet still, Phanny wouldn't leave me alone. I knew that she hadn't been taking the move to Pennsylvania well, but she had been doing better. Now she seemed to want all my attention, which that morning, I was not yet awake enough to give. Gently, I picked her up and placed her on the floor, hoping she would get my message. She usually did.

But this morning she didn't. She jumped up back onto my bed, meowing insistently. "Go away, Phanny!" I yelled at her. "Shoo! I'm trying to sleep!" But she still wouldn't go away. I was officially annoyed. Here I was, minding my own business, and Phanny insisted upon getting more attention. For goodness sake, she had her own bed right next to mine! But she still insisted upon waking me up, and now I was curious as to why.

The clock only read eight o'clock- Phanny wasn't fed until ten, and that was usually when I woke up on Sunday. But she was still there, staring up at my with gorgeous blue eyes pleading me. "What is it?" I asked.

Phanny promptly hopped off the bed, took a few steps, her collar jingling, and turned back when she reached my door. I sighed and rolled my eyes, but got the message, and followed her.

She rushed down the stairs, I followed. Phanny then trotted across the foyer to the front door. Wondering what in the world was going on, I followed. Phanny then began to scratch at the door, stongly resembling a dog. This made no sense to me: she had her own kitty door in the back to get outside, so why would she want to go out the front?

"Okay, Lassie," I said. "I'm tired of your games. No one's even up yet. I'm not taking you outside! Use your own door!" I then turned around and began upstairs again.

But just as I turned, a loud hiss like steam being let out of a pipe sounded behind me. I turned to see Phanny, her back arched, hissing at me with her mouth wide open and her teeth bared. I was absolutely shocked: Phanny never hissed at anyone, especially me. I was her owner, and she always loved everyone, though she was shy. She then sat stood up, no longer angry, and turned back to the door, scratching. Whatever it was, she desperately wanted me to see it, and now. I pulled on the same snow boots and jacket I had put on last night, and followed my cat out into the morning sun.

She had obviously already been out. Little cat prints from the backyard came out from the side into the front yard. But I didn't have time to see where they led. Phanny was marching on, ignoring the snow that reached up to her stomach, and walked out towards the road.

The snow near the road was black and crunchy from many fly-bys by local teenagers. Phanny ignored that too, and began walking up to a black plastic bag on the side of the road.

"What is it, Phanny?" I said. "That's just trash." People threw things out their windows all the time around here- my mom hated it. It was sad to see people throw such things into the forest, but it wasn't uncommon, and I didn't see why this bag was so special to Phanny. Her little footprints from the backyard also led up to it.

But then Phanny started nudging at the bag. She managed to get through the opening, and I could see her tail wiggle as she tried to get inside of it. "Get out of there!" I yelled, trying to pull her out. But she hissed inside the bag again, and I let her go. I picked up the end of the bag and peered inside to see what she was so eager about finding.

My jaw dropped. Inside the bag was the smallest, coldest kitten I had ever seen, carelessly tossed to the side of the road like trash. Phanny turned and meowed at me. This is what she had been trying to show me- she had wanted to save the baby kitten. I backed out of the bag. I reached in and picked up the kitten.

It was ice cold. I barely expected to poor thing to be alive, but it began squirming slightly in my hand- I guessed it was hardly over three or four weeks old. Not nearly old enough to be away from it's mother. It's fur was soft but wet. It was a calico, with a sweet white face- briefly it reminded me of the cat on Kaylie's video game. But I didn't have time to get a good look. I quickly placed the kitten inside my jacket and began running for the door, Phanny at my heels. I ran into the mud room off the kitchen, pulled open the dryer and found still-warm towels. I pulled one out, took the kitten out of my jacket, and placed her in the towel. I rubbed her gently to get her warm. She again began to squirm, and even opened her eyes. They were a lovely green. She then began to mew, reminding me of the fire alarm at school.

I wasn't sure what to do now. I had to tell someone- duh! My mom! I rushed towards the stairs.

But as I reached the stairs, I nearly ran into her. "Watch where you're going, Ellie!" she said to me. "What are you doing up, and why are you in your snow gear? What do you have?"

"Mom," I breathed. "Phanny wouldn't leave me alone this morning, so I followed her, and she showed me-this." And then I flicked open the towel, revealing the small, squirming calico inside.

"Oh, my goodness," my mom gasped. "Where did you find her?"

"Outside, in a black trash bag on out lawn," I explained.

My mom shook her head sadly. She took the kitten from me. "This baby isn't any older than four weeks…"

"I know," I replied. "What can we do for her?"

My mom handed the kitten back to me. "Take her into the kitchen and try to warm her up." And with that, she rushed off into the mudroom.

I briskly walked into the kitchen. Phanny was still following me, obviously very proud of herself. I sat down at the table, held the kitten close to my chest, and rubbed the towel back and forth across her fur as she mewed repetitively.

My mom then reentered, a heating pad in hand. She plugged it in, put it on high, and placed it on the floor.

"Hand her to me," she ordered me. I did. She put the towel down on top of the pad. I sat down cross-legged next to it.

"What are we going to do with her?" I asked nervously.

"We're going to take care of her," my mom said. Phanny came and joined our group.

"Are we going to keep her?" I asked. I really hoped we would- in a very short amount of time I had become attached to this little cat.

My mom looked down at the kitten, her purple-y eyes very fond of the kitten too. I was expecting the usual answer- we'll see. Or just flat out no. My spirits were already falling.

She looked up again, right into my eyes. "I can't say no," she replied. Something inside me exploded with happiness- I got to keep this kitten! She was mine!

"Thank you, Mom! Thank you so, so, so much!" I cried.

My mom smiled too.

For the rest of the day my mom and I tended to the kitten. I had to explain my story to each of my family members, who also found the kitten absolutely adorable. My dad didn't even put up too much of a fight when I told him we were keeping her- he secretly really liked Phanny, and cats in general.

But they all went out Christmas shopping. My mom and I stayed behind. I was a little worried- I wasn't going to be able to get presents for anyone- but my mom assured me that was fine. Everyone would understand- and besides, we now had a kitten to take care of.

Around one in the afternoon, the phone rang. My mom was busy feeding our new arrival with powdered formula she had gotten from the local shop, so I picked up. It was Kaylie.

"Hi, Ellie!" she said.

"Hey, Kaylie," I said, smiling. She seemed even happier than usual.

"Now, I had an idea this morning and my mom said I could," she went on. "I was wondering if you would like to come over tonight for a holiday party!"

I paused. What about the kitten?

Kaylie continued to talk. "It would just be you, and me, and Eric. My mom even told Eli that he couldn't disturb us! So we could have food and watch movie and play games…"

"I'm not so sure, Kaylie," I said. I looked to my mom, who was looking at me curiously. "Hold on."

"Kaylie wants to have a holiday party tonight," I said. "But I want to stay here and take care of the kitten. Remember, everyone was going to go out to dinner tonight."

My mom thought for a moment. She had been planning that dinner for a long time- it was her thing. She pretty much had to go. She sighed, and smiled. "Why don't you have it here?"

"Really!" I screeched.

"As long as it's not a wild party," she said. "I will be calling to check up on you."

I grinned at her.

"What's wrong, Ellie?" Kaylie asked as I came back on the line.

"The thing is, Kaylie, I can't go over your house," I said. "There's something I have to take care of here."

"So you can't come?" Kaylie asked miserably.

"No, but we can still have the party at my house!" I said. "My family is going out to dinner, so we would have the house to ourselves."

"Okay," Kaylie said, brightening. "I'll tell Eric. But why can't you come just across the street?"

"You'll see," I said, keeping the kitten a secret.

"Alright then," she said, confused. "Well, I'll bring over the decorations and food and stuff. I can't wait for you to see what I got you! Bye!"

My heart was as light as air until she said that. I didn't have anything to give Kaylie, or Eric, for that matter.

I explained that to my mom.

"Well… I might have an idea," my mom said.

"I'm all ears," I said.

My family came back, watched TV, and then got dressed up for dinner- I was actually a little glad I wasn't going. Don't tell my mom that- she wanted to have a family day for my dad's sake (reunite them because they live far away, blah, blah, blah) but I was never one for getting dressed up. The ball was pretty much the only time I got excited. But now I was excited for the party.

The kitten definitely came around. I don't think she had been out there for very long, thank goodness. She was now very warm and well-fed- she even managed to get up on wobbly legs and teeter around the kitchen. I couldn't stand not to be around her- she was so adorable, I just couldn't get over it. Phanny also took a liking to her, adopting her as her baby.

As I was carefully following behind the calico as she wobbled towards the refrigerator, a knock came at the door. "Be there in a second!" I yelled. Quickly, I picked up the kitten and put her in a padded cardboard box in the mudroom. I then raced to the front door, sliding around on the floor in my socks.

I opened the door. There stood Kaylie, beaming, and holding handfuls of streamers and a homemade cake.

"Come on!" I said. For the next fifteen minutes, we draped streamers all about my kitchen- red, green, blue, and white. Red and green for Christmas, blue and white for Hanukkah. Eric was Christian, and Kaylie was Jewish, and I was half-and-half, so it worked.

"What kind of cake did you bring?" I said, peering at the white-frosted cake through the Tupperware.

"No sugar, low cal, low carb, with soy frosting, and no taste," she said. "My mom made it. Honestly, I advise you to throw it out before it caves in on itself."

"No, it's fine," I said, trying to be nice.

"No it's not!" Kaylie replied.

"We can all make cupcakes later," I said, backing away.

"So, why couldn't we have this party at my house," she asked.

"You'll see!" I said.

Kaylie rolled her eyes. Then she smiled. "Can I give you your present now?" she asked.

"Eric isn't even here yet!" I said. Honestly, I wanted to open my present and wanted even more to give Kaylie her's.

"What do we need him for?" she asked.

"I don't know!" I said. "Let me see!"

Kaylie opened up a cloth bag, emerging with a small square present with blue dreidel wrapping. I opened it.

I looked down at what I had gotten, and smiled. Kaylie had gotten me my own version of NitenCats.

"Thank you!" I cried, hugging my best friend.

"Now we can have our cats play together," she said.

"Now let me get you your present!" I raced off.

The kitten was meowing softly in the mudroom. I gently picked her up from inside the box, putting the purple collar my mom had gotten around her neck, with a small white ribbon in the front. It had been my mom's idea to give the kitten as a present to Kaylie- she had been forever admiring Phanny, and now she could have a cat of her own.

Kaylie was fixing the ribbons on the chandelier when I entered. "Kaylie," I whispered. She turned.

"What is this!" she cried, not sure what to think.

"Your present, silly," I replied. Kaylie took the softly snuffling kitten from my arms.

"She's beautiful," she whispered. "But you know that I can't have cats. I can't take her."

"That doesn't mean you can't have her," I explained. "She can stay here and play with Phanny, but you're free to take her where ever you like. She's still yours."

"I don't know how to thank you, Ellie," Kaylie whispered. "I don't know what to say."

"You can say that you promise to come over every day and play with her," I said.

"I promise," she said. "How did you get her?"

I explained to Kaylie about Phanny, and how I couldn't leave her here. Then I remembered what had happened the night before, with the mysterious woman- but I decided that story could wait until later. Just as I finished, there was a knock at the door.

"Eric!" Kaylie yelled. The kitten looked up at her curiously. I rushed to the door, Kaylie walking carefully with her present behind me.

Eric entered as I swung open the door, snow in his hair and the wind at his back. "It's brutal out there!" he said.

"Shut the door!" Kaylie ordered me, shielding the kitten with her hand.

I did. "It's really coming down out there," I said. Snow was falling in clumps, and the wind blew it so that it was nearly vertically coming down. The sky was black, illuminating the flakes against the sky.

"Kaylie," Eric said, "why do you have a cat?"

"She's my present from Ellie," she explained. "She found her abandoned, and now she's my present." Kaylie rocked the kitten back and forth in her arms like a mother with her baby; the kitten was beginning to fall asleep in her arms.

Eric smiled, as did I. I had never seen Kaylie so happy. I then looked at Eric- I didn't have anything to give him.

"I'm sorry, Eric," I said. "I didn't get to go shopping today, and I couldn't get you a present."

Eric turned around after hanging his coat up. "You think that really matters, Ellie?" he asked. "I don't care about getting presents."

"Then you really don't mind?" I asked.

"Not at all," he replied. "But if we are giving out presents, then I would like to give out mine."

"Go right ahead!" Kaylie exclaimed, unable to hold back.

Eric searched through a plastic bag he had brought in, emerging with two small wrapped presents. He handed a small cube-shaped one to Kaylie, wrapped in bright silver paper with a blue ribbon, and a dark red rectangular one to me with a gold ribbon. I watched as Kaylie unwrapped hers with limited hand movement (she was still clutching the cat), and revealed a black velvet box.

"What in the world…" she whispered. Eric was grinning. Kaylie opened the box. I leaned over her shoulder to see what it was.

It was a watch. It was silver, with a light purple face, and ticked along smoothly. Kaylie had broken her old watch about a month ago, but had continued to wear it out of habit, even though it no longer told time. She stared at this one with a look of utter delight. It was much prettier than her old one.

"Thank you, Eric!" she said. "I'll have to hug you as soon as I put my cat down."

I took the cat from her, and she marched over and flung her arms around Eric's neck (which was no small feat, considering Eric was much taller than her now). Eric grinned and hugged her back. "I'm glad you like it," he said.

"Like it?" Kaylie said, taking off her old watch and replacing it with the new one. "I love it! Thank you so much!"

"You're very welcome," Eric said. Kaylie took the kitten back, admiring both of her presents now. "Now you have to open yours, Ellie."

I looked down at my present, wondering what was inside. I untied the ribbon, and took off the paper. A little black box was inside mine, too, but it was smooth with gold trim. I quickly glanced up at Eric, whose face revealed nothing, and opened to box.

I was shocked by what was inside. I could have sworn my jaw dropped, but I really didn't notice. Inside the box was the most beautiful piece of jewelry I had ever seen- a delicate silver chain, leading down into a pendant. The pendant was a teardrop shape, round, and sapphire- it shone even in the dull light of the foyer. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Not only was this the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, it was my birthstone- Eric had remembered my birthday! I picked it up out of the box. Kaylie was staring now too, and Eric was waiting for some sort of reaction. I twisted it in the light, and noticed the sapphire had crystals around it too… I had never seen anything like it.

I looked over at Eric. Unlike when he was watching Kaylie, he seemed to be waiting to see if I liked my present. I walked over to Eric. His eyes followed mine… I couldn't believe he had done this…

I stopped in front of him. Kaylie was watching us intently. "Thank you so much," I whispered, unsure of what to say.

And before Eric could answer, I leaned upward, and kissed him on the cheek, the leaned away. I don't know what had compelled me to do it, but my heart was now beating faster.

Eric was silent for a moment. "Uh… I'm… glad you, erm, like it," he said, shocked. I smiled, and hugged him.

Kaylie watched, absolute glee on her face.

A/N: I hope you all liked that! I have had more time to write recently… I've been sick for the past few days. I hope that I can write more soon… next chapter we will finally have Ellie reveal her secret to her friends. Bare with me, this is going to get good!

Love much,

Rachel


	18. A Christmas Surprise

Chapter Eighteen

A Christmas Surprise (And Not a Good One)

School let out that Thursday. The teachers didn't even attempt to teach us that day- everyone showed up full of Christmas spirit, which excluded the will to learn. Kaylie showed up that day with silver tinsel in her hair (even though she's Jewish- she said that silver can be for both holidays and that she never got to decorate with it for Hanukah) and Eric didn't show up with anything but a huge grin on his face. I personally, was extremely excited- I couldn't help but feel the anticipation course throughout the school as fast as the cold winter air outside.

Of course, not everyone gets into the holiday spirit. I couldn't help but hear Lianna brag about what her rich grandparents were buying her on the way home. They, too, had some to town from Amity Park, and they had serious money (which they had passed on to Lianna's parents, giving them a large house with everything she ever wanted- I bet her mother was as spoiled as she was). But that really didn't deter me much- I was too busy to really notice her ranting. I was showing Kaylie the NintenCats she got me- I had created a new little kitten on there and she was extremely excited to see it. She also continuously asked me how her kitten was doing. We were supposed to pick out a name for it today.

Kaylie and I wrapped our scarves tight around our necks and pushed our hats down practically so that we couldn't see- the freezing below zero wind-chill bit at our faces as we made a run for my front door. We both sighed in relief as we entered the foyer, where the heat was on, and we could thaw out.

"Glad to be inside," Kaylie sighed, taking off her large poofy jacket. It refused to stay on the hook as she put it up. "Arrghhh!" she growled, getting frustrated. "I hate this stupid thing! It's poofy, I can't walk in it, and it makes me look fat!" I didn't care to remind Kaylie that she was so skinny that she could wear three of those jackets and not look fat, but just told her to leave the jacket on the side of the rack instead.

I could hear the TV on as I entered the kitchen. I peeked inside the living room- my dad and Uncle Tucker were watching a car show with rather blank, staring eyes. The lights weren't even on, leaving a blue-ish glow on their faces. Deyton was sitting on the floor, mildly interested by the cars, fiddling with the wheels of his skateboard. It was much too cold for boarding out here- and all the snow hadn't thawed, so there was practically nowhere to do it anyway.

"Hey, Deyton," I said. He waved, bored. He watched as Kaylie and I entered the kitchen. Kaylie gave him a small wave. That did it- his interest in whatever we were doing peaked and he followed us as we sat down at the table. I smiled. Deyton always seemed to pop up when Kaylie was around.

"Anything to drink?" I asked Kaylie.

"Water's good," she replied.

"I'll have some too," Deyton said. I looked at him.

"Then get off your lazy butt and do it yourself," I said to him. I was rather tired of doing things for my cousins, and didn't feel like doing it anymore.

Deyton rolled his eyes, and Kaylie smiled. "What're you doing in here, anyway, Deyton?" I asked.

"Just, erm, wanted to know what you guys were doing…" he said.

"We're picking out names for the kitten," I said. "You really want to help?"

Kaylie was fascinated by this exchange. She turned, still smiling, to Deyton, who was watching her. "Heck, yeah, I would love to help!" he exclaimed. "Want me to go get him?"

"It's a female cat, Deyton," I replied, but he just turned slightly pink and ran off. I rolled my eyes- the measures that boy goes to just to get a little attention from my best friend…

"Your cousin's really nice, Ellie," Kaylie said.

"I think he thinks the same about you," I grinned. Deyton then emerged, the squirming little kitten in his hands. Kaylie squeaked and went to hold her holiday present.

"You know, Ellie, this is probably the best gift I ever got," she said. I said nothing, but the holiday spirit inside me swelled. I turned to Deyton.

"Deyton, go get my mom's laptop from upstairs so we can look for names on the internet," I commanded.

"Why do I have to do it?" Deyton whined.

"Do you want to help us or not?" I shot back. Deyton gave a sigh worthy of an angry nine-year-old and stormed off. I looked at Kaylie. "I love having servants." She laughed. "So what's up with you and my cousin?" I asked, slightly curious.

Kaylie thought for a moment, running her finger along the rim of her water glass. Finally, she answered, "Nothing more than what's going on with you and Eric."

My mouth hung wide open. I couldn't believe she still couldn't believe that Eric and I were just friends (although after the Christmas Ball, I wasn't so sure of it myself- but still, it's the principle of the thing!). I was a little shocked- and I guess a little proud of her too. Lamely, I answered, "Then nothing must be going on."

Kaylie gave a little knowing nod, and Deyton trotted back in with my mom's laptop. I logged on, and pulled up Google.

"What kind of name are we looking for, anyway, Kaylie?" I asked her.

"Something that isn't common, but isn't weird, that you remember, but not in a bad way…" she went on like this for several minutes, reputing everything she said, and I think eventually Deyton was the only one listening.

"So basically, the perfect name?" I interrupted.

"I guess that's what I'm trying to say," Kaylie said, shrugging. I logged on to behindthename.

"What do you want the name to mean?" I started. For the next hour, we searched multiple words- of course, Deyton insisted upon looking up some rather weird words to see if there were any names that matched- but we still had nothing.

"Okay, one last try," Kaylie said, stroking the now sleeping kitten. "Type in 'beauty'."

I did, slowly, now very tired of this. I would rather be watching the car show with my dad and uncle right now.

"There!" Kaylie exclaimed, pointing to a name at the top of the list. "Aimi! She looks like an Aimi, don't you think?" She stroked the kitten. Deyton awoke from a doze.

"Wha happened?" he asked.

"We found a name, doof," I replied.

"Good." He didn't even bother to ask what it was. Kaylie didn't seem to care. She just continued to talk to the kitten, crooning over the new name.

"You find a name yet?" I looked up to see my mom hovering over us.

"Yes," I replied. Not bothering to ask, she merely looked at the screen.

"Aimi," she repeated. "Nice choice. Anyway, I have to get dinner started."

I could have sworn I saw Deyton flinch just a little at that. He didn't like my mom's vegetarian cooking- honestly, after years of it, I could no longer tell the difference.

"What are you talking about?" Another person entered the room, yelling. We all swiveled around to see my Aunt Jazz speaking angrily into her cell phone. I listened in.

"What do you mean, he was embezzling from us! We had enough money to- no he was not! You-you listen to me, here, you pull this practice out of the ground and we'll make it work, I don't care how far in debt we are!" I glanced at Deyton confused. Aunt Jazz continued to scream. I had never seen her quite so angry before- she was always cool, calm, and collected to the point that it scared me. "I WHAT! --- Are you telling me that I've lost everything? My house, my car, my money- it's all gone! All because this jerk took this-"

I think you get the idea. A long string of curses came after that about some guy stealing money from the practice and leaving her with , nothing. .

Angrily, she slammed the phone shut, crushed it to the counter, and sat down at the table with her head in her hands. Kaylie was a little scared after the long line of cursing, and Deyton and I were just confused.

"What happened, Mom?" he asked.

Aunt Jazz sighed and spoke through her hands. "The physiological practice went under because some jerk employee was taking money from us. And because the house, the car, and pretty much everything else was under the practice name, we just lost everything."

Silence. No one really wanted to say anything.

Finally, my mom broke the ice. "You don't have anywhere to stay?"

"No, Sam, I don't," Aunt Jazz said stiffly.

"We would be glad to have you here," she said. My heart sank. They were going to stay here- with us. I already had to deal with them all through New Year's. And now they were going to stay? Dylan, Deyton, Danielle were going to live here and annoy me every day… oh, no, oh, no, oh, no…

"Thank you, Sam, that means a lot to us," she said. NO! my head screamed.

What a lovely Christmas surprise.

Later, Kaylie and I sat up on my bed, a chess game spread before us and each of us with a cat in their lap. Phanny purred softly, watching the pieces move, and Aimi snuffled quietly as she slept.

"Honestly, I really don't see what Eric sees in the game," Kaylie said.

I slipped my knight right where Kaylie's castle had been, check-mating her. "Maybe you have to win to get it," I said. "Check-mate."

"Dang it!" Kaylie said softly. "This is a stupid game anyway."

I smiled. "Sure," I said. Changing topics, I said, "So what do you see in my cousin, anyway?"

"Deyton?" she asked, then looked at the closed door. "I don't know. He seems nice."

"Nice, really?" I asked. "I never would have guessed."

"I just-" Kaylie continued, "I don't know. He's the type of person I can see myself with. Tell me then, what do you see in Eric?"

Wow. Awkward. I guessed it was time to admit whatever I had been feeling about my friend to Kaylie.

"I guess… I see a friend. He's smart, he's amusing, and he's someone I can see myself with," I replied, trying to keep the nervous edge out of my voice. I looked to Kaylie, who was smiling at me.

"You know," she said, "I think that's how he views you too."

"Heh," I responded. "Yeah, right."

"Really, Ellie," she said seriously. "You have to stop doubting that you can do things right and just build up the confidence to take the plunge. It's the only way it'll happen."

I didn't respond, because I guess I knew she was right. I couldn't argue with the truth, and I didn't doubt it. The thing was that I doubted I could do it- I am not a 'plunging' sort of person. Kaylie was. Eric too. I wish I had their courage.

Kaylie knew better than to ask me any more about my inner battle, and turned again to another difficult topic.

"Did you ever find out any more about your dad?" she asked. "The whole halfa thing?"

I paused slightly. I had to tell someone what I had learned sometime, and I guess now was the time.

"Yes," I said.

"Really?" Kaylie's eyes swelled to the size of half-dollars. "What?" she breathed.

I looked around, at my door. I could still hear the TV blaring downstairs, and I could hear Danielle's music in her room.

"Not now," I said. "I want you to go home and call Eric. Tell him to meet with us in my backyard at two this morning, and to not ring the doorbell or make any noise. Just come around back. I'll be there."

"Okay," she responded slowly. "But why all this secrecy, Ellie? What's going on?"

"I can't tell you now," I said desperately. "My family can't know yet. Not until I know more. I'll tell you the whole story, tonight. Just be there, Kaylie, please. Trust me."

Kaylie sighed. "I'll always trust you, Elle. I'll go home and call Eric now."

"Thank you," I said.

She got up and walked to my door. "Just don't do anything you'll regret, Ellie."

I looked down at my bedspread, and then back up to respond with a quick 'I won't', but when I looked, all I saw was the empty doorway.

I sighed. This Christmas was turning out worse than I had even imagined the first time.

A/N: Hi everyone! Hope you enjoyed that. The next chapters are going to be really intense, and show a little bit of what has been happening to Danny and what has happened to a lot of the characters over the years. So, bear with me, I promise it'll be good!

Starting on the next chapter,

Rachel


	19. Secrets in the Night

Chapter Nineteen

Secrets in the Night

I hopped from foot to foot, gradually compacting the snow beneath my feet, attempting to keep warm as the winter wind whipped across the deserted landscape. I stared around, but nothing moved but the swaying tops of the trees and my constantly shivering body. I stood there in my jeans tucked into boots, two hats on my head, a rather large sweater and a down jacket, and still shivered in the wind. Kaylie and Eric still weren't here, but they still had time. I could see the clock through the kitchen window, and it was only slightly after two. It felt like ages I had been standing in the foot-deep snow, though.

A slow crunching of feet on snow sounded from around the corner. I couldn't make out whether it was one fast moving person or two slow moving ones. I prayed for it to be Eric and Kaylie and not the ghostwoman. Although she had helped my discover what I was about to tell my friends, she still scared me slightly in a very stalker-like way.

"Ellie?" Kaylie's stage whisper came from around to the corner near the hose. "Are you there?"

"Yes," I whispered back. "Shhh," I added as she tripped over the hose on her way around the corner. Her red hair barely showed beneath several layers of scarves and hats. Eric followed, also barely recognizable in his dad's large black jacket.

"Good, you came," I said.

"What's this all about?" Eric asked. "Kaylie just called me and told me to come."

"I'm a little confused as to what exactly this is, too," Kaylie added.

I sighed. My lungs froze slightly as I breathed in the cold air and exhaled thick vapor. "Well, the night after we came back from the library…" I told them everything, from the feeling of turning to another form to how the woman knew my parents.

After the story, my friends just stood there, dumbfounded. Kaylie's eyes were large, and Eric stared off into nothing, contemplating it all.

"So you're saying that you are half-ghost?" Kaylie said.

"Yes," I replied.

"But are we really going to take this woman's word?" Eric asked.

"I take her word on the fact that I'm a ghost," I said. "That she knows my parents, I'm not so sure."

Both nodded. "Have you tried turning into a ghost since?" Eric spoke, surprising me a little with the question.

"No," I said. We all paused. "But I suppose I could try." Seeing is believing, I guess.

The snow crunched beneath my feet and I huddled inside my jacket a little more as I made my way towards the middle of the yard, and I could feel Kaylie and Eric's eyes on my back as I went, as if they were expecting me to change at any moment.

I turned on my heel to face them. "Ready?" I asked. Shivering, they both nodded. I closed my eyes, blocking out the view of their wide-eyed stare. I concentrated, remembering whatever I could from what the woman had told me. Moments later, the same cool breeze swept up and over my head, and I opened my eyes.

I heard Kaylie's gasp even before I opened my eyes. She stood there, her hand over her mouth, a look of disbelief in her eyes. Eric's expression was rather blank, the pale moonlight reflecting against his eyes. It made me feel like I was rather on display, but that wasn't the worst thing. It felt like everything had changed in just a split second. Before, this was my secret alone. Before that, I was blissfully unaware of what I was- I was merely the new girl. And even before that, I was simply the Amity Park girl with nut-jobs for grandparents and a mysterious father. But all that was gone as I stood there, and I prayed for everything to turn out okay.

"I know what you're thinking," I said to my friends, walking over to them. "I'm a freak."

Eric's eyebrows furrowed. "You're not a freak, Ellie. You aren't now and you never were, so just stop saying that now," he said. As stern as the words were said, I was really rather happy to hear them.

"Eric's right, Ellie," Kaylie agreed with the same sternness in her voice. "You're not a freak. You have a special power that no one else does, and it's one of the most fantastic things I've seen. No one can call you a freak for being special."

I nodded.

"So… can you fly, like your dad?" Eric asked.

I hadn't actually thought about that. I hadn't tested to see if I had any sort of power yet. But now that Eric mentioned it, I was curious to find out.

"Let's see," I said, smiling. I pushed off with my feet, now feeling lighter, and felt the amazing sensation of nothing but air beneath my feet. It felt like when I went on those swings at carnivals when I was little that spun around and around. The feeling of having nothing supporting me, the feeling of being free in the air with the breeze beneath my feet.

"Wow," I heard Kaylie whisper. "T-that's amazing."

"Yeah," I responded. "It feels weird. I feel taller, though."

Both smiled. "All of this is amazing," Kaylie said.

"What time is it?" Eric asked, searching for his watch under his many layers of clothing. Kaylie did too.

"Late enough that we should be getting back home," Kaylie said. I landed near both of them, the feeling of the earth once again beneath my feet. "Dawn will be coming in a few hours."

"Okay," I said. "Bye, guys. Thank you so much for coming, when I didn't even tell you what for."

"Being friends means trusting each other, Ellie. You don't need a reason to trust someone," Kaylie assured me. She hugged me, and hurried around the other side of the house.

I looked at Eric. He leaned over and hugged me too. "You're not a freak, Ellie, and you never will be. You're one of my best friends." I stood there, watching as he followed in Kaylie's footprints and walking around the side of the house quietly. As he reached the corner, he turned and waved. I waved back.

I looked around. All was silent, just as it had been when I came out, except the creamy moon was higher in the sky. Closing my eyes, I felt the cool breeze brush up my body and into the air. With one last look at the yard, I opened the screen door and quietly stepped inside.

A/N: Sorry that was a little short, but it was a very important to the plot. A lot of stuff is coming up and I wanted Kaylie and Eric to be in the loop for it all, so I had to have a chapter where they found out and where Ellie discovered at least one of her powers. But now Christmas is coming up, and the New Year will bring some travels for Ellie and her family...

Oh, and thank you to everyone who is reviewing! You guys are so great!

I'll start the new chapter right now,

Rachel


	20. The Portal

Chapter Twenty

The Portal

I woke up on Sunday with a start. Someone was shaking me awake. I could feel Phanny's warm presence near my stomach, and could feel as she hopped off the bed. I blinked several times to clear my vision, listening to the voice of whoever was shaking me.

"Wake up, Ellie! Wake up! It's Christmas!"

I turned, hearing the snap as my stiff back cracked. I was now looking up into the eyes of an absolutely ecstatic Deyton, still in full pajama-wear (although he did have his hat on, which made me want to laugh), with a huge grin on his face.

"What?" I said, my mind slowly catching up.

"It's," Deyton said slowly, pronouncing every syllable as if I were hard of hearing, "Chr-ist-mas."

I stared at him momentarily, then looked at my clock. "It's also only six fourty-five, Deyton. My Christmas doesn't start until at least eight, and I'm not merry until nine." With that, I turned over in hopes of ignoring him.

Deyton pulled on my shoulder, flipping me over. "Everyone else is already up, Ellie! It's Christmas, and I'm not leaving you alone until you come downstairs."

I looked out the door, where a disgruntled Danielle and a rather weary (but still somewhat peppy) Aunt Jazz were making their way downstairs in bathrobes.

"Fine," I said. I stepped onto the cold floor, really rather tired from my excitement last night. I reached under the bed and dragged out Phanny, clutching the squirming cat in my arms and staring at my cousin defiantly. He still smiled, and we both followed everyone else down the stairs.

Everyone had congregated in the living room. The tree twinkled merrily in the corner, and a menorah glistened in the window. Many, many multi-colored gifts lay scattered on the floor. As tired as I was, I still smiled. Some had Christmas wrapping, some Hanukkah, and some I think were even birthday wrapping (I guess we ran out of the rest- we did have quite a lot of people staying with us). I could hear the sizzle of pancakes in the pan from the kitchen. Early as it was, I couldn't help but feel the infectious spirit seep into me, too.

Deyton still stood next to me. "Merry Christmas," he said.

"Merry Christmas, Deyton," I said back, releasing Phanny. She brushed against my legs, then along my grandparents', Uncle Tucker's, and my father's. He patted his lap and the cat leapt lightly onto his lap.

"Morning, Dad," I said.

"Morning, Ellie," he said. "Aren't you going to hand out the presents?"

My dad usually kept his distance from Christmas merriment. He seemed to enjoy the celebration, and had always loved to watch me hand out presents happily, but kept his happiness to a minimum. I always assumed he just kept his excitement on the inside, shy, like I was. That was just the way he was- always happy, always funny, but never really letting anything about himself known. That was the dad I knew and loved and respected, but now I knew of at least one thing he had hid from me, and I couldn't help but wonder what else there was to him that I didn't know.

"Of course I was," I said.

"Then let's get started!" my grandfather interjected. My mom scurried into the room, and I began handing out the numerous gifts.

This Christmas probably had the most varied gifts I had ever seen. I had gotten everything from pajamas with ghosts on them (my grandparents) to a palm pilot (Uncle Tucker had gotten them for all of us) to a cell phone (my parents). I also received cat stuff that matched my room for Phanny and Aimi.

But probably the oddest gift was not given to me. My grandparents saved the gift they were going to give my mom and dad for last. We were forcibly taken out in the snow (which now had the consistency of limestone, just saying) to the Fenton RV. Here, we were forced to watch as my grandfather labored to get the back hatch open (which was frozen shut, and he accepted no help) and stand there freezing. The thought of the pancakes going cold made me want to get inside even faster. Finally, the ice gave (after my grandmother blasted the hatch with an odd gadget in her watch) and my parents' gift was revealed.

It was one of the oddest contraptions I had seen my grandparents make. It was a large ring with several receivers along the sides. There was a small control box on the side. It had to stand at least ten or twelve feet tall- I wasn't sure if it was a good or bad thing that we had high ceilings right now. As odd as it looked, I believe that the entire family recognized what it was. It was a ghost portal. My very first memory- I guess from when I was about three- was my grandfather taking me down to the basement and explaining it to me. Then, I admired its grandeur, then, it just seemed silly and useless, and now, I was beginning to think it might be more important than I had originally thought.

"You got them a ghost portal?" Deyton said, interrupting the shocked silence.

"Yep," my grandfather said proudly. "Even newer than ours. Better model. Isn't it just a work of art?"

I wouldn't exactly call what I mostly considered a gigantic steel death-trap to be a work of art. To me, even if there was such a thing as a ghost portal, I strongly doubt my grandparents had the capability to make it.

"I thought you guys had given up ghosts!" my Aunt Jazz exclaimed. She was always telling them how unhealthy their obsession with ghosts was. "Bringing this 'ghost portal' into Danny's house will bring up suppressed childhood memories, causing him to sink into a state of severe guilt and anxiety!"

I looked at my dad. He seemed used to Aunt Jazz's over-analysis of his mind, but when he saw me looking at him, he gave an exaggerated roll of his eyes at the situation. I nodded, trying to suppress laughter.

"So, where do you want it?"

My entire family looked at my grandfather. As much as we appreciated the thought he put into the gift, I don't think any of us wanted that thing in our house.

"You're an adult now, Danny," Aunt Jazz whispered to him. "You have the right to exert your independence by saying you don't want it…"

My dad shot Aunt Jazz a fierce look, and she backed off. He looked to my mom for an answer.

"Erm-" she said. "Put it in the basement?" She obviously didn't want it any more than I did, and I strongly doubted any of us would be going in the basement after this.

So for the rest of the morning, the entire family had to heave, push, and haul the ghost portal through the house and into the basement. This process only confirmed my thoughts that it was nothing more than a big steel deathtrap. My grandfather spent the rest of the time setting it up, and forcing my dad, Dylan, and Deyton to help him. The rest of us thankfully ate pancakes, hardly noticing how cold they were, just thankful we dodged that bullet. Dylan was sent up about an hour later after he gave himself a mild electric shock (his bright red hair now seemed slightly frazzled and he shocked everything he touched).

I was sent downstairs to get the rest of the guys just before lunch. Thankfully, I found them finished their task. Deyton looked rather grumpy but ran thankfully upstairs at the mention of lunch. My grandfather looked at his handiwork one last time before retreating. My dad, however, stayed put.

"You know, your Nanna and Granddad had one of these when I was your age," he said, out of the blue.

"Really?" I asked. "That long?"

"You calling me old?" I had never really considered my dad 'old' per say. To me, he seemed ageless, never changing. But now that I looked at him, more gray in his hair showed than ever.

"No…" I replied.

"Anyway…" he continued, "your mom, Uncle Tucker, and I used to explore the ghost zone. We made a whole map of it."

"That thing actually works?" I said.

My dad laughed. It was rare for him to laugh, but I liked it when he did anyway. "Yes, it works. Ghosts can get out of it, whether we want them to or not."

I picked this as a perfect time to ask him about ghosts. "And who puts them back in?" I asked knowingly.

My dad looked into my eyes, as if he could figure out if I knew anything just by doing so. I stared back unblinkingly, wanting to know if he would ask me if I knew anything. He turned back to the ghost portal. "They go back in by themselves."

I nodded. "Dad?" I asked, trying him again.

"Yes, Ellie?"

"Is there such thing as a half-human half-ghost?"

Again he looked at me. I knew the answer to the question, and I knew he knew, but I think we were both testing each other. I held the upper hand for once, but he didn't give. "Ellie, sometimes I think you have a more active imagination now than when you were little." He began to head upstairs. I stayed, staring at the portal, wanting it to tell me something.

"Don't you want lunch, Ellie?" my dad said, turning back. The dull light bulb in the ceiling illuminated his face, making him look more ghostly. For a second, I could have sworn his eyes turned green.

"Of course I do," I said, and made for the stairs. With one last look back at the portal, still revealing no secrets, I turned out the light, and the whole room filled with gloom once more. All, that is, except the green glow from in-between the doors of the portal.

A/N: Well, there you go! I actually started planning for the Christmas part BEFORE Christmas, and it's taken me this long to get here! Anyway, big plans for the future. Danny's going to show up more, but sadly, our two favorite weirdo friends will have to go on hiatus for a few chapters after the next one (although Ellie probably will speak with them). Thank you guys so much for reviewing! I never imagined that anyone would like my story as much as they do. I'm sad though, because I'm going on vacation the day the next episode airs! But it'll be on again, and I don't think tropical resort vacations will come again. Anyway, everybody, have a really great almost start of summer and stay tuned (I always wanted to say that!)!

-Rachel


	21. Secrets and Lies

Chapter Twenty-One

Secrets and Lies

The fact that my dad refused to tell me anything frustrated me. I was so hoping to be able to tell him what I know, to not learn all I know from mysterious people in the forest- but, if he was going to make it hard, I was just going to have to step everything up. I decided to learn as much as possible about ghosts until I could finally know what I needed to. And maybe along the way I could find out who that woman was.

So when I woke up this morning, the first thing on my mind was where to start my search. Mind you, some of our house was still in boxes, but I doubted whether I could find anything in boxes simply marked "Old Sheets" and "Tool Junk." As I lay in my bed, I decided my best bet was probably the attic or the basement. I decided that the attic would be the first on to go to, considering my dad has basically barricaded himself in the basement with the portal over the past few days. I guaranteed myself that he was exploring the ghost zone. I had to act now- and fast.

After my mom made French toast for breakfast (no objections from Deyton there) I made the excuse that I had to do some homework over the holidays and needed some time in my room to work. I went upstairs, turned on my light, closed the door, and quietly snuck upstairs. I avoided Danielle's room. She was such a nosy busybody that I bet she couldn't wait to find out what I was doing out of my room. As quietly as I could in that creaky ancient house, I found the door leading upstairs to the rather eerie attic.

Our attic reminded me of something straight out of a horror movie. I was loaded with boxes and things draped with sheets, making it look like dozens of ghosts were closing in on you. The paint on the stairs was peeling, everything creaked whether you moved or not (causing you to think you weren't alone), and there wasn't even any light to go by except the grimy glow from the two dormers all the way at the end of the attic. I could see why I hadn't been up here since the day we moved in.

But, I was on a mission, and pushed myself forward into the gloom. I rooted through numerous boxes of stuff from when I was a baby, dodged my old crib, my mom's old college books, and finally made it to the back. This was where my parents kept stuff from when they were in high school. There wasn't a whole lot of stuff, but I still hoped that I would be lucky enough to find something of interest.

I looked around, trying to make out the labels on some of the boxes. Finally, under one marked 'Animal Rights Protests' and over one marked 'Useless Fenton Inventions,' I found one marked in my dad's handwriting 'Ghost Crap.' Such a polite usage of words, younger Dad. I opened it.

Nothing immediately jumped out at me. Papers, discs, and books were all shoved in with some things that I wasn't sure what they were. I picked up the top disc, and couldn't help but smile at myself. It was marked 'Ghost Files: Confidential.' To me, pure gold.

Setting that aside to look at later, I rooted through more stuff. Here I found a photo album. It had a dark cover, making me guess it was my mom's. I looked inside.

There they were, my parents (and Uncle Tucker), about the age of fourteen or fifteen. They appeared to be in my grandparent's basement. They looked so young and happy. I flipped the picture over. 'Danny, Tucker, and I, Summer after 8th grade' was what it read. Doing some mental math, I guessed that my parents weren't even together yet back then. I laughed. They probably had no clue that they would someday be married, living in Pennsylvania, with a half-ghost daughter named Ellie. Oh, how things change.

The next picture showed my father putting on a jumpsuit, about to go into what looked like a ghost portal. Shocked, I realized this must be before he had ghost powers. This might be pictures of when he got them. Thinking sadly, I wondered what might have happened had he not stepped into the suit that day. I wouldn't have been here, trying to find out something about him and his powers.

A few pages later, after some school photos of my mom, dad, Uncle Tucker, and Aunt Jazz, I found something strange. My parents were slightly older in these photos, possibly sixteen or so. But there was a photo of a young girl, maybe thirteen, standing next to my dad. She strongly resembled him, much more than my Aunt Jazz did. Had there not been an age difference, I would have guessed they were twins and that I had another aunt I didn't know about. But the thing was, she looked just like the woman that had showed me my powers. She hadn't been lying- she did know my parents. This was proof. My hands trembling, I turned it over. 'Danny and Danni' it read. I knew that this had to have something to do with the ghost thing. Two halfas with the same name can't just be a coincidence. I set it aside.

Just then, there was a rustling near the stairs. Frightened, I quickly shut the box and slid the items I wanted to look at later into the corner. I couldn't be sure if it was a person or a ghost. Either way, I didn't want to take my chances.

"Ellie?" It was my dad. I wasn't sure if I was relieved or not.

"Yes, Dad?"

"How come you're up here?" he said, looking around.

"Erm…" I had to lie, and fast. "Just looking to see if we had any history books. My book isn't telling me what I need for my homework."

I don't think he bought it, but he at least acted like he did. "No, sweetie, we don't have any history books. Only books up here are your mom's old textbooks."

"Darn!" I said. I scooped up the disc and the photo and hid them in the pocket of my sweater. "Anyway, I'll just have to see if I can find it in the index of my book."

"Okay," my dad agreed, and retreated down the stairs, with me trailing behind. I promised to come back later. I went back to my room, and my dad went downstairs. I would have bet my life savings he was going back down into that basement to the ghost portal.

Danielle walked by, flicking her red hair, even though it wasn't in her face. "You're not done yet?" she asked, as if it never took her time to do anything.

"No, I'm not," I replied. Not bothering with manners, I walked back into my room and shut the door, sitting cross-legged on my bed.

I pulled out the photo and the disc. I took an envelope off my desk, put the picture inside, and crawled into the back of my closet. Here, I hid it in a piece of loose floor molding, right in-between the molding and the drywall. Pretty clever, if I do say so myself.

I then went and got my mom's laptop, making and excuse to my Aunt Jazz that I needed to research something on it. I put it on my desk, and spread some pens, pencils, papers, and my history book on top to make it look like I had been working. I then pulled up a history website to cover my tracks, and popped in the CD.

An hour and a half later, I was still looking at the ghost files. They fascinated me. I found Boxed Lunch's parents, the Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady, and was particularly fascinated by a ghost named Skulker. I stopped when dinner was ready, and watched TV with the rest of the family to make it appear like everything was normal and I wasn't doing something other than homework up in my room.

I couldn't sleep that night, though. I tossed, and I turned, but nothing felt comfortable. My research was calling me back to it, but I couldn't afford another midnight outing. But maybe I could afford a glass of water. Downstairs.

It was about eleven, and I think everyone was in bed, or at least going to bed. Soon, we would pretty much have our house to ourselves again, except for the fact that Aunt Jazz, Dylan, Deyton, and Danielle were all staying. I didn't want to think about them going to my school right now.

I guess I wasn't right in thinking that everyone was in bed though, because I could hear voices from the kitchen as I went down. I recognized them as my mom and my dad, and both sounded stressed. I squatted near the doorway and listened.

"I'm telling you, Sam, he's back!" It was my dad.

"I believe you, Danny," my mom responded. "It's just hard to believe. It's been so long… How did this happen?"

"I don't know," he said quietly. "Someone let him loose. All I know is that they've teamed up and wreaking havoc on the Ghost Zone."

"But what are they trying to do? What does he have to gain from doing such a thing?" she said softly.

"I think he's trying to get back at everyone who he believes has destroyed him," my dad explained. "Getting back at the ghosts who never helped him, and most certainly getting back on the part-humans he hates. He hates that part of himself, Sam, and he won't stop until everyone like that is gone."

"Gone?" my mom repeated. "You mean- he-he's going to kill all the halfas?"

I held back a gasp. What was going on?

"Correction," my dad said. "He _is _killing all the halfas."

"W-What do you mean, Danny…" My mom was obviously scared.

"He killed Vlad today," he said flatly. "And tried for another one, and myself."

My mom was speechless. I think she was very near tears or something though, from the way she was breathing. I could have joined her.

"You can't go in there anymore, Danny, for your own safety," she said raggedly.

My dad didn't respond. There was a little silence. Then my mom whispered to my dad.

"And what about Ellie?"

My dad sighed. "He couldn't go after her. She's not a halfa, Sam, she would have shown signs my now."

"How can you be sure of that?" she responded quickly. "You know that she acted funny when she was little, and the things she's been saying…"

"Asking if there is such thing as a halfa doesn't mean she is one!" my dad burst.

"Just because you don't want her to be one, Danny, doesn't stop her from being any less of what she may be," she said.

I was beginning to wish I had stayed upstairs.

"I will accept Ellie for whatever she is, Sam, you know that," he said.

"Of course I do," she said.

"She's my daughter. I just want to protect her from that- from that world," he said.

"I know you do, Danny," my mom said. "But you can't protect her from everything."

There was a silence.

"I'm going to bed," my dad said. I scampered into the dining room. After my dad went by, my mom paused, took a deep breath, and went up too.

I'm not sure how long I sat in that corner, wondering what was going on. I think I cried, my face was wet, but I hardly noticed. What danger was I in? But more important to me- what danger was my father and my family in?

When the clock rang twelve I went upstairs. I shoved everything to the back of my mind, and decided to push on with my research. It could no longer wait. What I had just heard made everything all the more urgent for me to know what was going on. I grabbed a flashlight and ran cat-like to the attic.

But I never made it there. Out of the darkness, something grabbed me. I think I almost fainted with the shock, I was breathing fast and hard, wondering if what grabbed me was what was attacking my family-

I shone the light in it's direction, ready to hit it on the head if need be. A flash of red hair came into view.

"Deyton?" I asked.

"Ellie," he said, much more stern than I had ever heard him. "What are you doing out of bed? Again?"

"What do you mean, again?" I asked.

He pushed me towards the empty closet and spoke to me in an angry whisper. "I mean, why are you sneaking around? Why are you telling people you're doing your homework and going into the attic? Why are you sneaking out into the yard and around the house at midnight? What are you hiding? A wild animal? Your boyfriend Eric, or something?"

"I'm not hiding anything, Deyton, and it's none of your business," I whispered back angrily. "And Eric's not my boyfriend!"

"It's my business when my family starts sneaking around the house and putting themselves in danger, Ellie," he said. I had never seen Deyton like this. "So just tell me, and I'll help you, or I'll leave you alone, or whatever. I'm going to be living with you, and I'm not going to have you sneaking all over the house and not telling me about it."

I thanked the heavens that he hadn't seen me change into my ghost form, or the mysterious woman, or overheard what my parents said. But as he stared at me with intense green eyes, I decided that he had a right to know, and that he might even be helpful. I took a deep breath, and decided to take the plunge.

"Okay, Deyton," I said. "Come with me."

Disclaimer: Hey, I don't think I ever put a disclaimer on here! So, as you may have guessed, I don't own most of the characters in here, Butch Hartman does, blah, blah, blah...

A/N: I hope you liked that! Things get REALLY interesting after this, and we get a new character. Maybe not major, but he's interesting. My friend begged to make up a character so I let him, so please don't be surprised by his extreme weirdness. My friend's weird so the character was bound to be, too. Anyway, thanks to my reviewers, you guys are awesome!


	22. A New Accomplice and an Invitation

Chapter Twenty-Two

A New Accomplice and an Invitation

(A long name for a really short chapter)

"So what exactly are you saying, Ellie? That this whole thing has been kept from us for all these years and we never knew a thing? I'm sorry, but that seems a little far-fetched, even for our family."

I swerved around to face my cousin. Businesslike, I replied, "Believe whatever you like, Deyton. You asked why I was sneaking around, so I told you. Believe whatever you want, I really don't care."

"What makes you think this is true?" he asked.

"I told you!" I exclaimed. "The woman, the pictures, the disc- it's all got to count for something."

"Does Kaylie know? Is that why she's always over here?" Deyton asked.

"Yes," I replied. "And Eric knows too. But no one else."

"Pretty big cover-up, Ellie," he said.

"I getting good at it," I snapped.

Deyton stood up to face me. "Call me crazy-" he began.

"-Which you are," I added.

He paused. "Okay, call _you_ crazy, but I'm in." As much as he annoyed me, I loved my cousin and agreed to let him help.

"Okay," I said. "Now let's go to bed, I'm tired from all this sneaking."

"Hear, hear," Deyton agreed, and together we marched back off to bed. Neither of us said anything, but I felt relieved knowing that I had shared my secret with someone in my family.

I woke up relatively well-rested. I still had bags under my eyes from lack of sleep, but I was happy to feel like I wasn't about to fall over from exhaustion at any moment.

After wrapping a robe around myself (it was getting colder by the day as the New Year approached), I headed downstairs. My entire family was assembled (and Uncle Tucker, who was playing tetanus on his palm pilot while munching cereal), except Deyton. I guess he wasn't as used as I was to staying up late into the night. I took my spot next to my dad and took my share of toast off a plate.

"Well, look at this!" my grandfather exclaimed from the other end of the table.

"What is it, Granddad?" Danielle asked, carefully buttering a piece of toast.

"Well, there's a big announcement in here about my old college buddy Vladdy dying in Wisconsin yesterday," he said, obviously very interesting. My eyes widened at the name. Was this the Vlad my dad was talking about the other day? It had to be, I had never really heard of many other Vlads that we knew. My dad noted my reaction, and he seemed in a state of forced calm himself.

"I'm going to go get the mail," he said, and got up from the table, leaving his unfinished breakfast behind.

"If he died in Wisconsin, why are they putting it in our newspaper?" I asked, wanting to know as much as I could about this Vlad person.

"Oh, he built himself a rather large empire," my grandmother said. "Although that never seemed to turn him into a gentleman, I'm afraid," she added coldly.

I wondered what exactly this person did to my grandmother, but I decided to stay quiet instead.

"Hmmmm, that's odd," my grandfather said, studying the paper.

"What?" I said.

"Says here he leaves behind a wife and a son," Granddad said. "I never knew that he was really the marrying type."

"Probably some young gold-digger, just pretty enough to make him look better. I bet he didn't even really love her," my grandmother said, stabbing at her bagel, scaring me slightly. "And I bet that son is just as bad as he is."

Silence around the table. My dad re-entered with the mail in hand.

"Seems like we're invited to him funeral," he said, breaking the silence.

"Vlad's?" my grandmother asked. My dad nodded.

"Yep," he said. "Held by a Mrs. Vlad Masters at their mansion in Green Bay, Wisconsin."

"Well, I suppose we're going to Wisconsin after we leave, here, Maddie, I guess we're invited too," my grandfather said to Nanna. She didn't reply.

"What about us, Danny?" my mom asked from across from me.

"I guess we kind of have to. I think Jazz is invited too," he said, studying the paper.

"So we're going to Wisconsin?" I asked.

"Seems that way," my mom replied. "Why don't you start to pack your stuff, Ellie? And if you're coming with us, then everyone else, too."

"I suppose we're going, too," my Aunt Jazz said, giving in. "Although these memorial services do nothing for the mind and simply destroy the mind." No one seemed to listen.

"Tucker?" my mom asked.

"I suppose I can get off, but I'll have to leave the car here," he said. I brightened. Things were always more interesting when Uncle Tucker came."

"Okay, let's get packing, then," my dad said. "We have to be there by New Year's."

We all got up and rushed up the stairs, where Deyton was just coming down for breakfast.

"Hey, where are you going?" he called out to us.

"Wisconsin!" I responded.

A/N: Here's the travel part of what I said! The next chapter is going to be really funny, and a lot longer. It was inspired by a really long trip I took. And my friend's character that he made up will being showing up shortly. He's really excited about it, although I don't think he's even read the story yet.


	23. A Long Ride

(I am very sorry, everyone, but this chapter does not have very much substance. It is very funny, but doesn't not have very much interest on the plot. I just needed a way to get Ellie and Co from point A to point B. So, if you don't like it, you can skip it. I know it's long... but I think if you do read it you'll find it funny. Just please no angry reviews on how its got nothing to do with the plot! Oh, and by the way, I don't own Danny Phantom or The Secret Life of Bees (that lastone you'll see why soon))

Chapter Twenty-Three

A Long Ride

(a.k.a. A Chapter of Many Flashbacks or The Chapter of No Meaning)

It was cold in Harrisburg the next day. After everyone had packed the previous day, my dad booked us last minute tickets on a bus headed from Harrisburg to Green Bay. We set off at four this morning with our luggage. I look at the clock. It's now seven in the morning, and the bus is due any minute. I stand between my dad and Dylan, shivering, my hands full with my rolling luggage in one hand and a bag with my cell phone and book in the other. We all went to the bookstore last night.

As I stand here, I wish more and more that I had chosen to take the Fenton RV with my grandparents. I mean, how reliable can a bus that had this many empty seats be? The bus terminal is freezing, it's now 7:05, and the bus is late. I lean closer to my dad for some warmth.

The bus finally rounds the corner. I would cheer if I wasn't afraid my mouth would freeze if I opened it. I push past the rest of my family, hand the driver my ticket, and plop myself down in a row near the back. There are three luxury seats on either side of the bus. Dylan, Deyton, and Danielle take the seat in front of me. I sit in the middle of my parents, and Uncle Tucker and Aunt Jazz sit across from us. I smile at both my rather weary parents. The bus is heated.

The only other people on the bus are businesspeople. It interests me how all businesspeople all seem to own the same exact same suit, but maybe that's just my imagination. They all pull out palm pilots and Blackberries like my Uncle Tucker does, except he seems to be the only original one because he's wearing jeans and not the weird matching suits.

The initial excitement of being on the bus wore off fairly quickly. I have an extremely short attention span, I know (my mom says I get it from my dad), but it was just so boring! My book, The Secret Life of Bees, turned out not to be about bees at all! Why couldn't someone have told me that earlier?

I looked around the bus. I turned to my mom. Maybe she could entertain me for the next fourteen hours.

"Mommy," I say. She looks up at me, and I smile. "Whatchya doin?"

"I'm reading, sweetie," she said, turning back to her book.

"What's it about?" I ask, not giving up.

"Why don't you read your book, Ellie?"

"It's boring!" I whine.

"Why?" my mom asks.

"It's not about bees!" I respond.

"Well, Ellie, I told you it wasn't about bees when you got it last night!" my mom said, turning back to her book. I think for a moment.

The previous day…

Ellie stood in the bookstore, looking at the rows of books, holding The Secret Life of Bees. She don't look up as her mom approached her.

"Ellie, what do you have there?" Sam asks. Ellie holds up the book absentmindedly, looking at the front cover of an optical illusions book, trying to make out the picture inside.

"You know that's not about bees, right?" she says.

"Eh," Ellie responds.

Sam doesn't bother telling Ellie anymore. She'll have to look on the back cover for herself.

"Ohhhh…" I say. "That was you?"

My mom simply responds by shaking her head. I am now bored again. I turn to my left, where my dad sits, reading a book about modern spacecraft.

I continue to stare at him for a good two minutes until he looks up. I keep watching him intently, for absolutely no reason at all. I bet that from his perspective, I look pretty strange right now.

"Yes?" he asks me.

"Daddy?" I say.

"Yes?" he repeats.

"Where are we?" I ask. I'm curious, and extremely bored.

"Well, Ellie, considering we just left, I say we're very near Harrisburg," he says, as if it is the most obvious thing. Which it kind of is.

"Oh," I say. I turn back to him.

"Daddy?"

"Yes…"

"Whatchya doin?"

"Read your book, Ellie."

"It's boring."

"I told you it wasn't about bugs, Ellie."

"Really?"

"Yes. Now let me read my book."

The previous day…

Ellie sits in front of the plasma TV at the front of Barnes and Noble, watching the weather man on CNN and the stock ticker at the bottom. Her book lays in her lap. Danny approaches Ellie from behind and puts his hand on her shoulder.

"Is that the book you're getting?"

"Eh…" Ellie responds.

"Are you listening to me, Ellie?"

"Eh…"

"Okay, Ellie, whatever."

My mind cranks. I still don't remember anyone saying anything to me.

I'm bored. I look over to my Uncle Tucker and stare at him, too, but he has headphones plugged into his palm pilot and is rocking out to some sort of music. I wished he wasn't- he was probably the most interesting person to talk to and the easiest to get to entertain me.

Sighing, I go to my Aunt Jazz. She's reading a psychiatry magazine.

"Aunt Jazz," I call happily.

"Read your book, Ellie," she responds.

"How did you-" I sputter.

"You've been looking to your entire family for entertainment, and now you're looking for something interesting to do from me. But I have nothing to say but to read your book, and to tell you that I too warned you it was not about insects." And with that, Aunt Jazz turned back to her magazine, leaving me in shocked silence.

The previous day…

Ellie stared at several sets of bookmarks with pictures of cats on them, wondering if any of them resembled her own. Jazz approached her and began browsing as well, looking at the book in Ellie's hand.

"The Secret Life of Bees," she reads. "Very good choice Ellie, but it's not about bees, actually."

Ellie never even noticed anyone was talking to her.

I screwed up my eyes, trying to remember, but still, drawing a blank. I leaned forward to my cousins, searching for some sort of entertainment. It was now beginning to lightly drizzle on the rural Pennsylvania road. The sky was a pale shade of gray, casting a humid gloom onto everything. But with all these odd businesspeople, I don't think that it could really get a whole lot more gloomy. I wondered if the rain would turn to snow later, and what the temperature was outside.

I stalked out Dylan first. He seemed as bored as I was, reviewing over the pictures in his iPod with glazed eyes. I had seen Uncle Tucker eye the iPod with a look of contempt earlier- I had hid anything of mine that wasn't Microsoft away from him the day he got here. According to my uncle, the only way was the Microsoft way.

"Hey, Dylan!" I stage-whispered into my cousin's ear. He jumped about a foot sideways, knocking into Danielle, who was fixing her make-up in the mirror. I almost laughed, enjoying the moment, but restrained myself.

Dylan swiveled around and looked at me, realizing it was only his cousin. "Oh, hey, Ellie," he said, slightly nervously. He brushed dust off of his newest sweater, a dark green one.

"Dylan," I repeated, "whatchyadoin?"

"Nothing," he said, bored as I was.

"Where'd you get that sweater? I don't remember that one," I said, trying make an interesting conversation. And about the only interesting conversation Dylan could hold usually concerned clothes.

"Well…" he began.

The previous day, in the shop next to the book store…

Dylan looked around. The winter line of his favorite shop had finally come out, and he had already ditched his family at the bookstore to go see. There were entire racks full of multi-colored sweaters and khaki pants, and he wasn't sure how he was to choose with only a limited amount of money in his pocket.

He sifted through the piles of sweaters, looking for a unique color he didn't have. As he fingered through the green pile, the voice of his mother came from the shop entrance.

"Dylan…" she called. "Time to go… Dylan…"

Dylan, in his haste, grabbed the last sweater he had been holding, paid, and rushed out after his mother. He jumped into the car just in time.

"So that's what you were doing when we couldn't find you!" I exclaimed. "I wondered. I had found a book on the history of the sweater and was looking for you, but I never found you."

"Really?" Dylan said. "Cool… Hey, look! A quarter!"

I sighed. This was the one interesting conversation I had had yet, but I knew it wasn't going to carry on once Dylan found that quarter. It's a sad, sad day when you can't carry on a conversation because of a quarter. I was thinking of trying to get Dylan's attention again, but once he found that it was made the year he was born, I knew I had no chance of winning him back.

At this point, I really didn't want to talk to Danielle. It would only frustrate me, and besides, the only conversation she could hold up was talking about perfume and make-up. I really didn't need that right now. Besides, I reminded myself, I was going to be getting a lot of it while my Aunt Jazz looked for a new job.

Deyton was my last hope. As Dylan began polishing the quarter, I tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hi, Deyton," I said as he swiveled around.

"Hey, Ellie," he said. My cousin had been treating me with a rather cautious attitude ever since I told him my story.

"Whatchyadoin?" I asked happily.

"Why do you keep asking everyone that?" he asked, almost laughing.

"Because I'm bored," I chirped.

"Well, so am I, but you don't see me stringing together words and annoying my family members," he replied.

"Yeah, well-" I said, trying to think of a comeback, "I don't know," I finished lamely. Deyton smiled.

"Why don't you read your book?" he said.

"It's boring!" I whined for the five hundredth time. "It's not even about bees!"

Deyton was shocked. "Yes, it is!" he rebutted.

"No, it's not, Deyton, look for yourself! You told me it was about bees, too!"

The previous day…

Ellie wandered aimlessly around the bookstore, looking for something to read. Fingering each book, none really caught her eye… no catchy titles, no interesting illustrations… she didn't even bother to look at the back covers…

"Hey, Elle," Deyton said, popping up behind her.

"Hi, Deyton," replied Ellie in a bored tone. She pulled out The Secret Life of Bees and looked at the front cover.

"You should get that one," Deyton said. "My mom said it was really good. It's about bees and how they live and stuff."

"Cool!" Ellie exclaimed, entranced by the idea. "That sounds good. I think I'll get this one. Thanks, Deyton."

"No problem," Deyton replied, satisfied with himself.

"Oooohh…" Deyton said. He laughed nervously. "Sorry about that. Please don't hurt me."

I glared at him for a few more moments, then sat back in my seat again. I put The Secret Life of Bees back into my bag and pulled out my cell phone that I had received for Christmas.

I considered calling Kaylie or Eric, but that would cause too much noise. The bus was now rolling down an empty highway, with nothing but the growl of the engine and the sound of fingers on keys of the laptops. I turned the volume on the phone down and logged onto AOL Instant Messenger, praying that my friends were on. I could have cheered when I saw that they were both on.

FelinePhantom24: HIIIII!

katzwoman55: what're you doin on

Cannonball808: Yay! Ellie!

FelinePhantom24: glad someones happy to see me

katzwoman55: im happy 2… just surprised

Cannonball808: oooo… youre on your phone

katzwoman55: no duh eric

Feline Phantom24: stupid boy

Cannonball808: hey! I take offence to that

Cannonball808: I'm not stupid… may I remind you who got the highest gpa in the grade?

katzwoman55: may I remind you who walked into a pole last week

FelinePhantom24: and the week before that

katzwoman55: I also believe it was the same pole too…

Cannonball808: oh shut up

FelinePhantom24: ha ha… ok im still bored

katzwoman55: hows the trip goin elle

FelinePhantom24: you know health class?

katzwoman55: yea

FelinePhantom24: worse than that

Cannonball808: ewwww… that's pretty bad

I looked out the window. We were now passing through the border with Ohio. Only what, ten more hours to go? I looked back down to notice several messages from Kaylie.

katzwoman55: crud… I forgot to clean my room

katzwoman55: and my mom wants to inspect it gtg bye!

katzwoman55 has left the room.

I smiled as the screen said Kaylie had signed off. It was so typical of her, to just go on the computer and ignore the fact that she had to clean her room. (Which, by the way, deserved some cleaning- looked to me like a bomb went off in there last time I saw it).

Cannonball808: guess its just you and me

FelinePhantom24: guess so

Cannonball808: so hows everyone holding up… must be a long ride

FelinePhantom24: better than I am… my cousins look bored 2 tho

Cannonball808: how's Danielle

FelinePhantom24: u just wanna know cause u like my cousin

Cannonball24: no I don't

FelinePhantom24: yes u do u just don't wanna tell me

Cannonball808: trust me ellie, I like someone else

FelinePhantom24: ok then who

Cannonball808: im not going to lie to u ellie

FelinePhantom24: ok, good

Cannonball808 has signed off.

In that moment, I wished nothing more than to yell at Eric. Of course, it was one of his riddles- he wasn't going to _lie_ to me, because he wasn't going to tell me anything. "Ask me no more questions, I'll tell you no more lies…" Oh, he was in for it when I got back!

I couldn't help but think what he meant by 'someone else' though. I slumped back into my seat, wondering… and before I knew it, I was fast asleep.

A/N: So that was my stupidity! I thought of this while on a long ride, can you tell? Maybe it wasn't 14 hours (looked that up on mapquest) but it was long. And also, I hope you like the screennames, it took forever to think them up! Anyway, the next few chapters are very important. Sorry if I let you down on this one.

Oh, and thank you all reviewers! You are great! And a special thanks to MarinJayde (sorry if I spelled it wrong) for mentioning us in her own fanfiction! Rock on, guys!


	24. The Masters of the Mansion

Chapter Twenty-Four

The Masters of the Mansion

"Ellie. Ellie, sweetie, wake up…" a gentle prodding voice whispered in my ear. Dismissing it as part of my dream, I ignored it.

"Ellie… Ellie…" I ignored it still.

"Hey! Hey, Ellie, we're in Wisconsin!" a loud voice yelled near my face. My eyes snapped open. The bus was no longer moving. We were surrounded by hard-faced buildings, and the businesspeople were grabbing their luggage and exiting, as were some of my family. My mom was prodding me gently to wake up, and Deyton was inches from my face, grinning. I jumped back slightly.

"Okay, okay, I'm up," I grumbled, grabbing my bag. I pulled on my jacket, as I saw my mother was, too.

The cold wind was like a slap in the face as we walked off the bus. It was about five degrees outside, with a windchill of much, much lower. I no longer wondered why no one was out on the streets except us. My dad came over and put his arm around me.

"It's a little chilly, isn't it, Ellie?" he asked.

"Just a bit," I responded. I looked around. "Where's our luggage?"

"Vlad's family has provided all of us with transport back to their home in Madison," he yelled over the howl of the wind.

"Cool," I said, meaning it literally. "Where are Nanna and Granddad?"

"They got here before us," he said, walking me into the wind with the rest of the huddled family. "They're waiting in the car. It's too cold for them. They started talking about the ghost energy in the wind, so I had them go inside."

Our transport was three high-end Lincolns, black, with chauffeurs driving them. I had never been driver around by a real chauffeur. Aunt Jazz and my cousins went in one car, my parents, Uncle Tucker, and I in another, and my grandparents were left to the last car. I felt very sorry for the person driving my grandparents- I doubt when he took the job he expected to be treated to '100 Fantastic Ghost Catches by Jack and Maddie Fenton.'

I shivered in the middle seat between my parents, still huddling close to my dad. It was now very dark outside, and I was cold and hungry, though not really all that tired.

"How long is the ride to Madison?" I asked, meaning to direct the question to my dad.

"About two and a half hours, in this weather, maybe longer," the chauffeur answered. I groaned, flopping my head back on the seat.

"Hey, Ellie," Uncle Tucker said. I looked up. He was holding out his PDA. "There's Tetris on that."

"Cool," I said. I had left the palm pilot I had gotten for Christmas at home. I turned on the PDA.

By the end of that ride, I think I was the master of Tetris. With the wind and the darkness, it took over three hours to get to Madison. In that time, I had already played all the games on Uncle Tucker's PDA and mastered them. I wondered if I could now beat Eric and Kaylie at video games.

"Hey, Ellie, look, we're here," my mom said. I looked up.

There, looming before us, was the biggest house I had ever seen. I don't think it really even qualified to be called a house- it was more like a castle. Nothing like it was ever seen in Amity Park or Specterton. Ha, I thought, and Lianna thinks her parents have money. What would she think if she saw this?

The Lincolns pulled up right in front of the giant-sized front doors. The chauffeurs took out all our luggage and I stepped out after my dad. The way the house just bore down on you like an angry teacher over your shoulder scared me a little. It was if the wind whispered, "I'm watching you, I'm watching you…"

I wasn't sure what time it was, but it had to be late at night. Far past dinnertime, I thought sadly. All I had eaten today was the measly lunch served on the bus. I devoutly wished I could raid everyone's pockets for snacks (especially my grandfather, who had kept fudge in his pockets since I was three) but I thought it might look a little strange in a funeral setting.

My grandfather was the first to approach the doorbell, with my stony-faced grandmother not far behind. I huddled near my dad, not only because of the cold, but because I felt rather shy of these people I had not met. Granddad pressed the large ornate bell, sending off a shockwave of a BONGGGGG throughout the house. Several of the lights were still on, making me wonder if our group was not the only one staying here for the festivities.

The door slowly creaked open, with light from the foyer spilling onto the cement steps. I stepped farther behind my dad, who turned and smiled at me. There at the door was a woman, dressed in a black dress with white trim and the tallest black heels I had seen. I wondered if she had to glue herself to that spot so as not to fall over. She had long blonde hair draping down onto her back, and eyes green like fresh spring leaves. I assumed that she was Vlad's wife, from her expensive dress and remorseful yet composed manner, but I was slightly thrown from the fact that she didn't look a day older than my own parents. I guessed my grandmother was right- she had most likely married him for his money. I don't think any old man looked good enough to catch someone like this lady.

"Welcome to our home," she said remorsefully, although it seemed like a tired phrase she had probably said a million times before.

My entire family tried not to seem too eager to rush into the warm mansion, but I think that was lost as we all rushed for the door. I still clung to my dad's arm. The expansive foyer seemed even more foreboding than the outer exterior of this castle.

The foyer was not only foreboding, but quite a bit strange as well. The walls were all painted the most exotic and daring shade of green I had seen, topped off with almost luminescent yellow trim. Football memorabilia decked the halls instead of Christmas decorations. It seemed such a shame to me- as rich as the king of the castle was, apparently that couldn't change his decorating sense.

"Vlad was a Packer's fan," my dad whispered in my ear. I smiled.

"A little over-obsessed, wasn't he?" I responded.

There was hardly any furniture in the foyer except for the glass cases housing numerous footballs. But there was a fixture that didn't appear to be part of the foyer- a boy was standing near the edge of a cabinet in the middle of the hallway. He didn't appear very much older than I was, possibly sixteen or seventeen, with a handsome chiseled face and jet black hair. I guessed this was Vlad's son (again I was surprised by how young he was). He looked barely anything like the woman at the front door, with the exception of his lanky figure and his green eyes. But there was something different about his eyes- they appeared much colder than the woman's, with a tinge of blue-grey in them. They reminded me of the harsh Wisconsin winds blowing outside- never-ceasingly deep, cold, and unearthly. I looked away as he turned his observant, unblinking gaze onto me.

"Danny," my mom whispered. "Did you recognize Vlad's wife?"

My dad looked back towards the woman, then to my mom. "Was I supposed to?"

"You didn't realize?" she answered. "It's Starr from high school, Paulina's friend!"

"What?" my dad asked. "Really? Are you sure?"

My mom nodded. "Looks like the satellite found someone else to revolve around. Someone with even more money than Paulina." My dad laughed quietly.

"Hello, Fentons," the woman my mom said was Starr said. "I have not had the pleasure of meeting you before, but my husband spoke fondly of you." Her eyes lingered through the crowd, as if to add, 'Well, most of you.' "I am Starr Masters, and this-" she gestured to the boy to join her- "is my son, Darius Masters. We are so glad you could be here. If you need anything, please come to one of us."

I felt like I was checking into a fancy hotel. The woman- gold digger, I'm sure- didn't seem to be very upset. But I guess that was jumping to conclusions, so I reserved judgment for later. Darius made to move to acknowledge any of us, but continued to watch me intently as if I was supposed to tell him something. I squirmed slightly under his gaze and moved behind my mom to block his view.

We were then introduced told that we would be staying the Southeast Wing (man, how many wings did this place have?). My grandparents, cousins and aunt, and uncle were all taken by different butlers up the stairs. Starr Masters rang the bell for butlers several times, but no one came.

"Darn butler… probably slacking off again…" she grumbled under her breath. "Darius. Please take these people to room 7 in the Southeast wing."

"Fine," the boy said. I think he meant to whisper it, but he still had a rather loud voice. "Please follow me, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, and erm…" He looked at me, but I just looked at my feet.

"Ellie," my mom said.

"Ellie," Darius repeated. "Please follow me."

I followed behind nervously. I could swear that Darius was trying to figure out something about me. I wondered if he could tell halfas apart. But that was stupid- how many people really know about ghosts?

Darius stopped in front of Room 7. "Someone will come to get you for breakfast in the morning," he said. With one last look at my mom, my dad, and me he turned on his heel and walked away. A shiver ran up and down my spine and vapor rose from my mouth as we entered the room. I dismissed it as nothing more than a draft in the hallway.

Room 7 was bleak, with white sheets and grey walls. There was two full sized beds. My parents and I immediately got ready for bed, although I definitely wasn't tired. This place made me curious, and Darius's attitude toward me made me even more curious still.

"Goodnight, Ellie," my mom said, and kissed me on the cheek.

"Goodnight, Mom, night, Dad," I said.

"Goodnight, Ellie," my dad responded, turning out the light as I squirmed under the covers. The clock flashed 11. My stomach growled, but my parents were already fast asleep. I turned on my side, wondering if the feeling of foreboding about this house was just me or not.

A/N: I am very sorry that took so long! I have had it written for a very long time but no matter how hard I tried my document manager wouldn't accept it! Thanks for waiting... I hope you enjoyed it. The next few chapters are crucial!

-Rachel


	25. The Other Halfa

A/N: Sorry this took so long! Enjoy!

Chapter Twenty-Five

The Other Halfa

I stared up at the blank white arched ceiling, wondering where the food was kept in this place. To my left, my dad snored loudly, and my mom slept through it. I closed my eyes, but sleep eluded me. I opened them again and sighed.

I looked out the window into the blustery weather. The wind howled around the mansion. Treetops just skimmed the bottom of the window, making me miss my own treetops back in Specterton. I bet these weren't crawling with ghosts though… not that I would be surprised, though, this place was creepy…

I tossed the covers off of myself. I was not going to sleep anytime soon, so maybe this place might be worth exploring- I wonder what a bathroom would look like in a place this extravagant. So, without really any thought at all, I approached the door at the end of our room.

Something flashed by the window. I spun on my heal, my mind immediately jumping to a ghost of some sort. I narrowed my eyes, peering out the window. It must have just been my imagination playing tricks on me. My hunger was making me delusional or something.

The door barely made a sound on the way out of the room. Although neither of my parents are particularly light sleepers, I still didn't want to give them any reason to wake up.

The hallways were lit with flaming torches that had to be at least half my size (and probably about as big as Kaylie, and I bet they weighed more). I felt like I had stepped back in time about five hundred years and was now on some sort of secret mission in a medieval manor. Only I hoped that in this time period everything had fire alarms and running water.

Another flash passed near the end of the hallway. Was it just me, or did it seem like it went right through the wall? I had to be right- one's delusional hunger can only cause so many hallucinations. This place had to be haunted by some sort of ghost.

I only just then remembered that I, too, was technically a ghost- albeit totally inexperienced and having no idea of my powers, but still a ghost. I closed my eyes and concentrated, changing into my ghost form. I was way too curious just to let something like this go.

I too, passed through the wall where I had seen the supposed ghost. It was a sort of library, with large bookcases stretching to the ceiling. I don't think even Eric could have enjoyed this library though- everything leered down on you, and the entire place was a cold stone gray. But however creepy it was, I saw no ghosts. I wasn't sure if I was relieved or disappointed, or a little of both.

"Ellie Fenton, how nice to see you," a voice said behind me. Slowly I turned, knowing but not knowing what I would find behind me. This was completely out of a horror mystery now, and I was the main character. I was just praying that this chapter didn't end with me getting killed off.

There he stood, Darius Masters. But he looked oddly different. His formerly observant gaze now had that power-hungry gleam in it, and he was watching me as if he were the lion and I were the gazelle. I certainly knew how the lion and gazelle story turned out by watching Animal Planet, and it wasn't good.

I didn't say anything, merely stared like a gazelle. I definitely felt like running, but even though I was in ghost form, I didn't feel any urge to run or fly away. I couldn't- my legs were trapped on the floor, and I couldn't move them. Run, stupid, run away! I told myself, but I didn't.

Then, the last thing I expected happened. As Darius Masters took a step toward me, two glowing rings formed around him and then went up over his head and around his feet. All of a sudden, he was no longer Darius Masters- he was someone else, someone else far more sinister. He had blood-red eyes, and a very strange pale-looking face.

"Surprised? Really? I would think you, little ghost girl, of all people, would know about me, Darius Plasmius…"

I said nothing. My feet did nothing.

"Really? No? Don't you know that your father and mine were arch enemies? Don't you know the story? Speak up!" he yelled at me. My legs finally were moving- and backing me up right into a corner.

"I bet you don't have any idea about your powers, bet you have no idea what you can do! Your father didn't know what he could do either. He could have been the most powerful ghost ever, worked alongside my father… but no. He chose to be good! And I bet you're no better! Well, I am better… I have been training much longer than you. You have no idea what kind of trouble you're in, Phantom girl…"

"Get away from me!" I screamed, holding a hand up to cover my face.

For some reason, Darius yelled out as I held up my hand. I lowered my arm to see what had happened. He had backed off a little, and was shaking his head as if to shake off a shock.

"So that's how it's going to be? Well, I can do much more than your little energy blast…" I looked at my hands. I actually had more powers? Well, if I did, now was the time to use them…

"Tell me, little girl, can you do this yet?" And as I watched in horror, I was surrounded by five more Dariuses, all staring at me with the same predator gaze. They were all laughing, laughing because he (or they) could do anything they wanted, and I was completely defenseless…

The Dariuses were closing in. I could see no way out. Oh, how stupid I was, to leave my room in the middle of the night in a strange house… Now it was going to cost me dearly.

"Go away…" I whimpered, not really sure what else I could do. "Go away… Go away…" my voice was going louder and stronger… "_Go away_… GO AWAY!"

My voice had risen to a scream, but it was echoing oddly throughout the room, almost like a moan… The sound waves were visible. All six Dariuses were tossed backwards into a bookshelf, and returned to one as books tumbled from the shelf. He changed back to a normal human, as did I. I was now terrified. What had I done? He wasn't dead… no way was he dead…

I took a step towards Darius. He gave a slight twitch, and moaned a little. He was alive! Was that a good or bad thing?

The door to the library flew open.

"Ellie! What's going on?"

It was my dad, his face pale with fright. He must have noticed I was gone, and heard the crash… I didn't know what to say.

He came over and took in the scene of Darius lying under a pile of encyclopedias. He knelt down next to him and looked at me. "Ellie. Tell me what happened." It was a stern command.

"I-I don't know," I said meekly, unable to think of anything else.

"Yes you do. Lilleth, tell me. I know that you know what happened." It looked to me like he had already put things together, and just wanted me to say it.

"I really don't know," I said, looking at my feet. "I was going to the bathroom and heard a crash. I-I found him like this."

His eyes said he didn't believe me, I knew that they did. He didn't respond and merely checked Darius's pulse.

"I'm going to go get Star, and the doctor. You- stay here. I'll send your mother in to get you." And with that, he left.

I sighed. Why had I lied? I knew that my dad knew the truth about me. A ghost must be able to know when another person is a ghost. But I hadn't even known that I was one myself for fourteen years… Maybe that was different. I could have told everything right there, let it all out, but I didn't… The lie just overtook any other thought… Was I really this stupid?

Darius moaned again and blinked. "You," he said, looking at me. "You… better stay away from me. For your own good." With that, he blinked again, and his eyes stayed shut.

"Ellie!" It was my mom's voice. My dad had sent her down.

"Mom!" I yelled, and ran over and threw my arms around her. I had never been so happy to see someone in my life. I felt like a little kid again, seeking out her mom for protection from the world around her.

"Thank goodness you're safe… I need you to go back to the room," she instructed. "I've got everything. Just go back and go to sleep."

Like I would ever sleep again after this. But I stepped away from her and headed back to the room. I headed towards the doors, and looked back as I reached the door frame. She was staring at me with the same all-knowing look as my dad. Did she know too? I looked at my feet and headed back to the room.

I sat on my bed and put my head in my hands. What had I done? Who was I?

A/N: I hoped you liked that! It took me awhile to think up Darius's dialouge (I can't write for evil people!). Well, I must be doing something right, because Welcome to Specterton now has over 8000 hits! YAAAAY! Thank you guys so much for reading. This chapter was really intense, but the next chapter will have a great new character, trust me. It's the one my friend thought up. And I thought of a whole bunch of new... erm... exotic ghosts over the weekend. Trust me, they're hilarious!

Have a great day!

-Rachel


	26. What Atlas?

Chapter Twenty-Six

What Atlas?

I don't know how long I sat on that bed with my head in my hands. I drifted in and out of a terrible half-sleep where my dreams were just beyond my control, where terrible things happened to my friends and family and it was all my fault… In the particularly bad moments I jerked awake and had to remind myself it was just my mind playing tricks on me. Eventually I sat up a little straighter to keep from falling asleep, but the illusions still danced in front of me. I gritted my teeth until it felt like my enamel would crack to keep in control. Everything would be all right… Everything would be all right…

I wondered what was happening elsewhere in the castle. I wondered if the doctor had been contacted in time. I wondered if Star knew what had happened like my parents. I wondered if my parents were going to ask me what really happened, and if my grandparents and the rest of the family knew about what had happened yet…

At some moments I got up and headed for the door, only to put my hand on the door handle and retract it as if it had burned me. I had promised not to leave. I vowed never to disobey an order again… I had lied when it mattered the most. I may have hidden stuff, and told little fibs about not cleaning my room, but I had never lied like that. I was asked a direct order and I failed to obey. What if something happened to Darius, and it could have been prevented with my account of what happened? He may be an evil, conniving, unfair git, but he's still a person. Or a ghost. Or a little of both.

I barely heard my parents reenter the room. The wind covered the squeaking of the door. I jumped as my mom tapped me on the shoulder.

"You're back!" I exclaimed with relief. My dad was still watching me with a look of utter contempt, but at least they were back. "How's Darius?"

"Doctor came and looked at him." My mom paced slightly. I looked at her with a little voice in my head screaming "AND?" but I waited. Finally, she went on, "He had a slight concussion, but he'll be fine. He was extremely lucky."

My insides gave a huge sigh of relief and my teeth screamed with happiness as I stopped grinding them. He was going to be alright! I was reminded of the time I gave Eric a concussion. Hey, I didn't mean to hurt them… How do these guys keep getting beat up by me, a girl no bigger than five foot three and a hundred fifteen pounds? Oh, well, whatever. They both ended up alright.

I still didn't sleep that night, but at least I could breathe easier. Very early in the morning, my dad stirred. I pretended to be asleep.

"Sam," he said lightly, shaking my mom a little.

"What?" she responded, blinking.

"I can't stop thinking about last night."

"You need to let it go," my mom whispered gently. "It's not your fault and it's probably not Ellie's. You heard her. She doesn't know what happened. And Darius is fine anyway."

"Do really believe that?"

"I think that we should trust our daughter before we should trust your rash conclusions, Danny," my mom responded logically. "As far as we're concerned, she's innocent until proven guilty."

"I know she was lying!" my dad burst in a stage whisper. My mom shushed him before he went on. "Sam, come on. Do you remember how many lies we told like that when we were her age? I can tell when my own daughter is lying, because I know that look in her eyes. I had that same look every time I lied to my parents."

"Danny, I think all that lying made you paranoid," Mom responded. "If you don't believe Ellie's telling you the truth, fine. But at least trust in her judgment. If she gets into trouble, she'll tell us. At least trust her in that."

All of a sudden I had a great respect for my mother. I waited for my dad to respond, but all I heard was the creak of the bedsprings as he got up off the bed.

"Where are you going?" my mom asked.

"Somewhere," he said. "I'll go look for the breakfast hall, I guess."

"Are you hungry?" Mom asked.

"No," he responded. "Maybe I will be by the time I get there though. I just have to walk around for awhile. Clear my head."

My mom said nothing, but I could tell that this disturbed her a little. My dad despised all forms of physical exercise. This was really a very odd occurrence for him. It worried me a little too- I must have really upset him to actually make him walk. For goodness sake, the man refused to walk up escalators because he said the job of an escalator is to be moving stairs, so that the person didn't have to move.

I listened as my dad quickly got all of his stuff and headed for the bathroom. He stopped back briefly to put back his stuff, and then disappeared down the hallway.

I laid in my bed for awhile. Not only had I lied now, I had upset my family. How great of a person am I? I could hear my mom's heavy breathing as she fell back asleep.

I needed to talk to someone. I scooted over the edge of my bed, and found my bag. I looked up to make sure my mom was still sleeping. She was. I pulled out my phone, praying that at least one of my friends (or even Deyton) was on AIM. I opened my phone and signed onto AIM, turning off the volume on the side.

Thank goodness! I screamed in my head. Kaylie was signed on. I wasn't sure I even wanted to know why she was signed on at such an early hour. Probably looking at some weird video or picture online…

katzwoman55: ELLIE! omigosh! omigosh!

FelinePhantom24: calm down child

katzwoman55: not a child… hows WI doin… miss me… or Eric wink

FelinePhantom24: not the time k

katzwoman55: gosh wats up wit u

FelinePhantom24: everything…

Now I wasn't sure what to say. Yeah, I went out searching for who knows what, followed a ghost, used powers I didn't even know I had on him, nearly killing him, and now my parents know that I lied and I'm freaking out. How do you begin to explain that in a casual conversation?

FelinePhantom24: I need to TALK to you…

katzwoman55: Ellie, tell me wats rong… ur freaking me out a little

FelinePhantom24: I'll call u. bye.

I snapped the phone shut and took a deep breath. I had to talk to Kaylie- now.

"Mom," I called.

"What?" a dreary answer came back.

"I'm going down to breakfast." Before she could even respond, I grabbed my bag and change of clothes and headed down the hallway.

I could hear the rumble of people talking from down the monstrous staircase, but instead headed in the opposite direction, looking for the most isolated bathroom I could find. I found one at the end of the hallway, shut the door, and locked the handle.

Quickly, I searched through my list of numbers on my phone. There weren't many, and I found Kaylie quickly.

I listened to the phone ring 4 times. Don't let me get the voicemail… pick up, Kaylie, I need you…

"Hello? Ellie?" I was absolutely relieved to hear Kaylie's voice on the other end of the line.

"Kaylie!" I exclaimed.

"What's going on? You sounded really bad on AIM…"

"Kaylie, I have to tell you what happened last night…" I began, and told her right down to the second what happened. I even told her of my parents conversation this morning, how I'll never get my dad's trust again now that I lied, and how I had actually made him go for a walk.

"Wow…" Kaylie said, words failing her.

"What do I do?" I asked.

"Doesn't sound like there's a whole lot to do, Elle, I'm sorry to say," she responded. "It sounds like whatever damage was caused is done with. If I were you, I would just lay low for the rest of the trip. Then Eric and I can help you. I don't know what else to say."

I was about to respond when there was a knock at the door. I froze. Who would come down to a bathroom at this end of the hall?

"Kaylie, I have to go," I said. Without waiting for her to respond, I flipped the phone shut.

"Occupied!" I called out to the person on the other side of the door.

"Come on, Ellie, I saw you go in," the voice said. I recognized that voice…

"Dylan?" I asked.

"Close," the voice said. "Deyton. Thank goodness I'm not Dylan, because if I was, I would have found out your secret and would have been giving you fashion tips right now."

I couldn't help but smile at that. The sad thing was that he was probably right.

"So, I heard what happened," he said. I waited. "I was wondering what happened. Your dad was dragging a half-conscious Darius by our door last night, so my mom went out to talk to him. I couldn't hear what they were saying though."

"Hmm." I wasn't sure what to think of that. Was my Aunt Jazz in on this too?

"Anyway," Deyton went on. "I'm sorry about what happened, anyway."

I began getting dressed, wanting out of here as soon as possible. I responded, "Whatever. What's done is done."

"You don't think that this will have consequences?" Deyton said, shocked. "You don't think that Darius won't come back? Don't you know anything?"

"Of course I know stuff, I'm not Dylan," I said. "It's just that we aren't here for all that long, so what are the chances that he'll come back? Besides, there will be no more walking around that castle for me, anyway."

"You don't go to the movies at all, do you?" he said. "It's the typical storyline. Maybe you defeated him for now, but he'll get bigger and stronger and come back to get you. And with all the vengeance he built up while you were away, it'll motivate him even more. Meanwhile, you think that you're safe while you save the world and all this crud, but you're not truly happy because the romance part of the storyline isn't complete… Come on, Ellie, I would think that you would know better."

"Okay, first of all, you watch too many movies and need to get a life," I began. "Second of all, he's not going to come back. How's he going to get to Specterton? It's not like there's a wormhole connecting the places. And third of all, what romance story line?"

"Whatever, Ellie, but you'll just come crying back to me when you find out I'm right, just like the time I told Dylan that Canada wasn't a state," he said.

I rolled my eyes.

"Hey, don't roll your eyes at me," he said.

I looked at the closed door. "Are you spying on me or something? Because we are related, you know, and that's kind of creepy if you're spying on me…"

"Ew, no!" Deyton exclaimed. "I just know you way too well."

Gathering up my stuff, I walked over and pulled open the door. "I'm not sure which one's creepier," I said.

"Let's go get breakfast," he said.

I thought for a moment, then nodded. I dropped my stuff off back at our room, but kept my phone in my pocket. Kaylie was guaranteed to call back sometime today.

The breakfast hall was much, much bigger than I had really imagined it- I was strongly reminded of the Hogwarts Great Hall in the Harry Potter movies, only there was only one long table instead of five. The table was about half-filled with people that (I assumed) were here for the funeral. I thought I recognized several people from the front of money-making magazines I had seen in the doctor's office.

"This guy must have been pretty popular, huh?" Deyton said to me.

"Or just had enough money to influence people to come," I interjected.

"Yeah, or that," he agreed.

I recognized my Aunt Jazz's trademark red hair, along with Dylan's and Danielle's, towards the middle of the table. My Uncle Tucker and my dad were also nearby, immersed in deep conversation. Every once and awhile they turned and checked no one was listening in. I would have bet my savings that Uncle Tucker was in on whatever happened last night, and probably on everything else. He had been friends with my dad as long as my mom, and if she knew, I bet he did too.

Deyton and I took spots across from Danielle and Dylan.

"Morning," Dylan chimed.

I smiled. "Good morning."

The table was filled with breakfast food. Mounds of toast, plates of bacon, and trays of blueberry waffles lined the table, along with several toppings for each. I had never seen so much food on one table. Before taking anything, I looked up and down the table. Darius sat all the way at the other end of the table, several purple bruises on his face.

"He doesn't look very well," Deyton said. I made a noise of agreement.

"He doesn't look very happy, either," I added.

"True that," Deyton agreed. I couldn't help but raise my eyebrows a little at that. Deyton laughed, as did I.

I reached out and took two blueberry waffles, still talking to Deyton. "Well, I know that I'll be steering clear of him from now on."

"You better," he responded. "You know what I said-"

Before Deyton could finish his sentence, Star Masters lead a man by us to the end of the table, angrily whispering to him.

"Honestly, I don't know how you know," she said. "Do you have cameras in our house or something? Really, it wouldn't surprise me…"

Deyton and I exchanged glances. As eccentric as the conversation was, the man was probably even more so. He was dressed entirely in blue- from his shirt all the way down to his shoes and socks. He looked around as if he were to be attacked every moment, and as we watched, he took out a bottle of Purell mechanically, put some on his hands, and rubbed it in. Again, my cousin and I exchanged looks.

"Now just sit here," Star said, gesturing to the seat next to me. Great, another weirdo to sit next to. "And… stop coming over our house!"

The man didn't respond, but merely turned to the blueberry waffles with an oddly contorted look of glee. A little creeped out, I turned back to my food and began buttering my own waffles.

I turned to glance back at the man, but found his face a few inches from mine. I jumped, and scooted towards Deyton, who stared.

"Are you going to finish those?" he asked, pointing to my waffles.

"I was planning to," I said. "Do I even know you?"

But the man had already turned and reached across the table, repeating the same question of Danielle.

"That's Atlas," a voice said behind me. I turned. It was Star Masters.

"Atlas?" I asked.

"What 'atlas'?" Deyton repeated.

"His name is Atlas," Star said. "He lives next door to us. Comes over for breakfast every time we have blueberry waffles. I have no idea how he knows when to come over, but he does. And if we refuse to let him in, he comes through the window and scares the maids. So we have to let him in. He's a creepy little man…"

I absorbed this information for a moment, but Deyton continued to asking questions right away.

"Hold on," he said. "Is Atlas his first or last name?"

Star merely shrugged. "I don't know," she said. "That's the only name he gave me, and it's the only one on his mail and his mailbox, and in the phonebook. I have no idea."

"Okay…" I said. Atlas had now successfully stolen waffles from everyone around the table. I looked at my own plate, and was not completely surprised to notice I no longer had waffles. I sighed and reached for some toast.

Breakfast finished without any more weirdness. I never did get my waffles back, and I prayed that Atlas would not turn up again for the rest of our stay. He was a little strange, and made everyone a little uncomfortable. I hoped he wasn't invited to the funeral- it was hard to stand the constant sanitizing of his hands.

Everyone filed out of breakfast by eleven by the cooks who wanted to begin getting ready for lunch. I was caught in the shuffle out and lost sight of my parents and Deyton.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. Already knowing who it was, I turned to see a very beaten Darius. The same fire burned in his eyes and pierced right through me.

"Be on your guard," he said to me in a deadly whisper. I felt a chill run down my spine as if an ice cube had been slipped down my back. After a second, I brushed his hand from my shoulder.

"Stay away from me," I said, and rushed out the doors of the now-empty hall. When I looked back, Darius was no longer there.

A/N: Sorry that took so long. This chapter took a lot of thought. Notice the new character, Atlas- he's the one my friend made up. I know he's a little strange, but so's my friend. Atlas is harmless and will be more of a kind of-filler than anything. I hope you enjoy him though, he's going to be really funny. I'll try to get the next chapter up soon!

-Rachel


	27. The Funeral

Chapter Twenty-Seven

The Funeral

"Aren't funerals interesting, Ellie?"

I looked up at my mom from my spot on the edge of my bed. She was dressed entirely in black, from her long-sleeved black dress to her black stockings to her black high heels. I looked her up and down. Everything about her was positively morbid, except her face, which was lit up with glee (behind her dark make-up).

"I guess you could call them interesting," I said. "I've never been to one."

"Oh, that's right," she said. "Well, I find them very interesting. You'll see when you get down there. So, how do I look?"

I scrolled up from her black shoes to her black hairpiece. "Dark," I responded.

"Perfect," she said. "Why aren't you getting dressed?"

"What do I wear to a funeral?" I asked. "I mean, I didn't even know the guy."

"Yes, you did," my mom said. "Vlad used to visit your grandparents, when you were very little. We used to live with them, remember? Of course, I always made sure he kept his distance from you," she added, a cold expression on her face.

"Really? Why?"

She thought for a moment. "Vlad… was not a very nice man. I didn't want my newborn baby daughter around him. I think he held you once, maybe. Your grandfather gave you to him when I wasn't home. I think we have pictures. But, he just wasn't the type of person you let your child around. I was shocked to learn that at that time he had a son of his own. I just can't really imagine him as a good parent. No wonder that Darius seems a little distant. Anyway… I think I have another black dress in my bag, one of my old ones. Would you like to wear it?"

"Sure," I said distantly, soaking in this information. Maybe I could get to know more about this Vlad at the funeral, from the people that knew him. Maybe my dad would tell me more. He was the one that said he had been part ghost… And that was pretty much confirmed because his son is too. How many people knew about that?

My mom handed me one of her black dresses. "That one's too small from me, you can probably keep it," she said. "I have a lot of black already."

"I've noticed," I said.

The dress fit me almost perfectly (it fell a little too far past my knees, but that didn't matter) and after I also had on black stockings and shoes, I looked almost like a miniature model of my mother. She smiled at me.

"Perfect."

I looked at myself in the mirror. "Morbid."

"Exactly," she said. I laughed and shook my head a little.

My dad strolled into the room. He had gotten dressed down the hall.

"I hate this tie!" he exclaimed. He was dressed in a black suit, with shiny black shoes that squeaked on the floor, and to top it off, a black satin tie. He pulled at it several times, trying to loosen it.

"Stop playing with it," my mom ordered, fixing the tie. "It's only for the next hour or two. Then you can take it off."

"If it doesn't choke me before then," he grumbled. He looked at my mom and I. "Well, I can see that I'm taking the Adams family to the funeral today."

"Oh, don't joke about that, Danny," my mom responded. "Ellie looks great."

"I'm not saying she doesn't," he responded. "And I'm definitely not saying that you look bad either."

My mom rolled her eyes. My dad was never that great at complementing people. "So how does the rest of the family look?" she asked, rummaging around for her black handbag.

"Well, my parents at least dawned black jumpsuits," he said. "Tucker has on a pinstripe and red suit that makes him look like a pimp, and I haven't seen Jazz or the triplets."

I choked on my laughter. I couldn't wait to see Uncle Tucker now.

"Come here, Ellie," my mom said, holding out a black eyeliner pencil. I reluctantly let her put it on my eyelids. "What time does it start, Danny?"

"We should be heading down there now," he responded.

"One more minute," she said, capping the eyeliner and coming at me with garnet-colored lipstick. "There," she commented, finished. "We can go now."

The hallways had a slow trickle of guests flowing down them, all dressed in dark colors. I determinedly tried to rub off the lipstick with my tongue while looking at the guests around us. There was several important-looking people in black suits, including an older Chinese woman chatting on a cell phone.

"Hey!" a voice called behind us. My Uncle Tucker had caught up with us from his room down the hall. He was wearing a tailored pinstriped black suit with a red vest and tie- my dad had been correct; he did indeed look like a pimp. But that didn't seem to deter him any at all, as he looked at my mom and I. "Hey, look, old Goth Sam's back!" he exclaimed. My mom gave him a look but decided to leave it. He turned to me. "And Ellie, I swear, you could pass off as your mother when she was in high school in a second, especially with that eyeliner."

I smiled, not really all that sure if that was a good thing or not.

"Where are we headed?" my dad asked.

"Huge hall opposite where we had breakfast," Uncle Tucker responded. "And I hope you know that it's open casket, too."

A chill ran down my spine. Why did it have to be open casket? My mom looked rather happy that it would now be even more morbid. My dad was as uncomfortable as me.

"Ellie!" called a voice in front of us. It was Deyton, with Dylan, Danielle, and his mom, waiting to get into the hall. We joined them in the sea of black suited people.

Danielle was wearing a very dark red dress with three-inch black heels and more makeup on than I had ever seen on anyone. Dylan had been forced out of a sweater and into a black suit and tie, and Deyton had left his hat behind (most likely at his mother's request) and put on a navy suit. He looked thoroughly unhappy at the thought of being here.

"Dreading this?" I asked.

"Of course!" he responded sarcastically.

The crowd did a slow shuffle into the hall, which had been filled with long benches for the occasion. Each bench was lined with red velvet, and as we went in, Star Masters (dressed fashionably in black and blood red) handed us each a card. It was laced around the edges with gold gilt, and in the center, written in fancy golden calligraphy, was the name Vladimir masters and his birth and death dates. I flipped over the card. There was a picture of a thin old man with almost pure white hair, pulled back, sitting in a maroon velvet chair with a stuffy gray cat on his lap. I listened to Star behind us: "Oh, yes, he did love that cat… got it when Darius was five…"

To my right, my dad snorted with laughter. "So he finally got a cat," he said.

We were ushered into one of the pews towards the back. My grandparents were already sitting there, my grandfather fooling with his black tie (which he had put on over his jumpsuit to be fancy) and my grandmother was looking around impatiently as if she couldn't wait to get out of here.

Deyton tapped my shoulder. "Look…" he said, pointing to the front of the hall. There were several wreaths of red flowers, along with many pictures of the old man and his cat. There were a few of him when he was younger- him at college, him at about forty… but there were no signs in these pictures that he ever got married or had a child. And, right in the center, there was a small podium and a casket with the lid thrown wide open. Luckily, it was too far up for me to see anything, so I instead looked at the people scuttling in the aisle.

Another family took a seat at the end of the pew. All I could see were two blonde heads and a dark-haired one.

"Really, why did we come here?" said the guy.

"To support Star!" the older woman piped up.

"Like she needs supporting," the guy responded. "She already got what she wants out of the guy, and now she doesn't have to deal with him! She's got the money now… Although she does have to deal with the kid…"

The younger girl made an angry noise. Her father ignored her.

"Let's just get through this," the girl said, her voice sounding familiar. "I just want to go home."

They all turned to face front. My jaw dropped. It was Lianna and her parents! Just the second I think I get away from her, she just comes right on back. What the heck was going on?

"Dash…" I heard my father's menacing voice say behind me. I turned and looked at him. He was staring at the blonde man with a look of pure loathing.

"You know him?" I asked.

"Oh yeah, we go way back," he said.

"And not in a good way, I'm assuming," I said. "Well, I don't like Lianna."

"What?" he said. "You Dash Baxter's daughter?"

"Yeah," I answered. "She goes to my school. I hate her guts."

"And they live in Specterton, too?" he groaned. "And just when I thought we were moving away from them!... Sam, look!"

My mom looked. "Paulina…" she growled.

"That's Paulina?" my dad asked, turning back around quickly.

"Don't get me started," my mom said.

"So you know both of Lianna's parents?" I asked, but my dad interrupted me.

"Did you know that they live in Specterton?" he asked.

"Noooo…" my mom said. "We have to move."

But the Baxters apparently heard my mom's loud no, because at that second, they turned around.

"Fenton," Dash said.

"Dash," my dad said menacingly.

"Paulina," my mom said in the same tone.

"Lianna," I growled.

"Well, well, well," Dash said. "I'm sorry to say this, Fenton… Well, not really… but you look wimpier than you did in high school."

"And amazingly, somehow you've managed to look stupider," he responded.

Lianna's mom looked my mom up and down, and then looked at my dad, then at me. She laughed. "You actually _married_ her, Danny? I knew that you had bad taste, but come on… And a daughter too? You poor child," she said to me.

Lianna laughed at me. "I had no idea that you had such bad genes to go along with everything else, Ellie," she said. "My parents have told me about yours. I almost feel sorry for you."

"We're not going to sit here and take this," my mom said. "I don't know about you, but I'm an adult now." She turned back to the front. My dad and I took that as a cue to do the same thing.

The last few stragglers were coming in. Another person came and sat in our aisle. My heart sank as I realized it was creepy muffin-man from breakfast. He sanitized his hands mechanically again.

"Yes…" he said to himself, then turned to me. "Helloo," he said, drawing out to o like an owl.

"Hi?" I said. Down the aisle, Deyton and Dylan noticed him too, and slid away from him.

"What's your name?" he asked me politely.

"Ellie Fenton," I said.

"You stay where you are," he said. He turned to my dad. "What's your name?"

"Daniel Fenton," he said.

Atlas pointed to the spot next to me. "You sit there!" He continued up the aisle and back down, putting everyone where he wanted. Soon I figured out that he was putting us all in alphabetical order. By the time we were done and he had taken his seat near the aisle, it went like this: Atlas, Dash, Lianna, Paulina, Danielle, my dad, Deyton, Dylan, me, my grandfather, my aunt Jazz, my grandmother, my mom, and then way at the end was Uncle Tucker. Atlas looked extremely pleased with himself.

"What are the chances he's OCD?" Dylan asked me, as Atlas cleaned his hands.

"One-hundred ten percent," I responded.

The minister at the front of the room began talking. He had a rather small voice and I couldn't catch many of the words, not that I was really listening all that intently anyway. Dylan began folding origami with the card he had gotten, and my grandfather fiddled with his tie. What surprised me though was that as bored as I was, this was still a funeral, and no one was really all that sad. Most were merely bored like me. I looked around. In the front, Star was staring off into space. Darius sat slightly apart from her, stony-faced. She began to move toward him, but he just moved farther down the bench. Star must've been used to it, because she merely pulled out a Cosmopolitan magazine and began to read.

After what seemed like hours later, after a fake but tearful performance by Star at the podium, the man told us to rise. I gratefully stretched my legs. "Now, as you file out, you may pay your last respects to Mr. Vladimir Masters."

It took forever for the people in front of us to file past, because it was such a huge crowd. Many merely glanced at Mr. Masters, but many stopped to hug and gossip with Star. Darius neither accepted nor received any recognition.

Finally, it was our turn. We all filed out in alphabetical order, shuffling our feet on the dark red carpet.

My grandparents stopped to look at Vlad Masters. I could see him too. He was dressed in a clean-cut suit, with the same slender chiseled face as Darius. This was probably what Darius would look like in fifty years. I stopped with Nanna and Granddad.

Furtively, my grandfather took a small stick out of his pocket. Carefully, he prodded Vlad in the side. Then again. I tried not to smile. What in the world.

"Jack!" Nanna exclaimed in a stage whisper as people went past (including the Baxters, who gave us an odd look). "What are you doing?"

"I'm poking Vladdy with a stick," Granddad responded.

"Why?" my grandmother asked.

"Because dead things need to be poked with sticks, to make sure they're dead," Granddad said.

"We're supposed to be here to pay our respects," Nanna said in an angry whisper.

"But you don't want to pay your respects, you didn't like Vlad," Granddad said, stating a point, but a little too loudly. Several people turned and looked at us. Nanna grabbed my grandfather's arm and marched him quickly out of the hall. There wasn't anyone behind us anymore. I rushed to catch up with my parents in the main aisle. Star proceeded to walk out.

"Aren't we going to go to the cemetery?" my dad asked Star.

"Oh, no," she said. "His wish was to be buried out in the yard, next to his cat." She turned on her heel and walked out. My parents looked at each other, shrugged, and followed. I took a few steps and turned back for one last look at my first funeral. There was the casket, lying wide open, with the sleeping man inside. Darius was bent over him, looking at his face. And, although it may have been a trick of the light through the huge glass windows, I could have sworn I saw his face glistening with a tear or two.

I took a deep breath, turned, and left.

A/N: I hoped you enjoyed that. It took me a long time to write it, I'm sorry. Since someone asked how long my story was going to be, I decided to make a plan. It's going to be forty-five chapters, plus an epilouge of what happens to the characters and a big disclaimer of everything I wrote about, cause I don't own Danny Phantom or just about anything else. I'm telling you now, Ellie will tell her parents about her powers. It's not until later though, so you don't have to keep asking. It'll come when it comes. I've got a plan! Oh, and just to keep you guessing, the next chapter is entitled "Eric's Cell Phone." I'll try to update when I can!

-Rachel


	28. Eric's Cell Phone

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Eric's Cell Phone

The same Lincolns that had brought us to the Masters' mansion took us back to Green Bay. The scenery looked no different. The same blustery wind howling around several of the houses with twinkle-lights framing the window. I sat back with my parents and Uncle Tucker, just staring out the window. I was thankful to be away from that terrible mansion and to be rid of Darius. But as thankful as I was to be leaving, I was positively dreading the bus ride home.

When we reached Green Bay, my grandparents bid us goodbye. They were now going in the opposite direction, back to Amity Park. I kissed each goodbye, realizing that Aunt Jazz was not going back with them. I had new roommates now; four of them. As my grandparents argued with the parking lot manager over the price of keeping their RV in the lot, our bus pulled up. I waved back to my grandparents and boarded.

Was it just me, or did it look like the same dull people in suits were on the bus again? I couldn't really tell, as they were all looking down at their Blackberries.

I sat in the aisle this time. The same old scenery flashed by all the windows. I yawned, with boredom or tiredness, I couldn't tell. I leaned forward to Deyton.

"Hey," I said happily. "Whatchya-"

"Would you stop doing that!" yelled one of the businesspeople two rows up. "It's bad enough you did it all the way here, but all the way back? For goodness sake, READ YOUR BOOK!"

"Fine," I said, and took out my book and began to read without question.

I got back to Specterton at around ten that night. All the way from Wisconsin to Harrisburg to Specterton I had dozed in and out of an uneasy sleep, after finishing my book, which was really not that dull after all. I was grateful to be back at my home again. Uncle Tucker said goodbye to us all, saying that he had to get back to work tomorrow or his boss would be mad. We tried to convince him to stay and not drive in the dark, but he took off in his Saleen anyway. I waved until his taillights were only pindots in the distance. After that, I went upstairs and crawled into bed, with Phantom curling up next to me. I needed to thank Kaylie for taking care of her. But not now… Now I was finally able to sleep easy.

I woke up at nine the next morning. I crept downstairs, hearing the voices on the TV. In the living room, my dad and Dylan were watching the news, the latter with a big bowl of Fruit Loops in his hand. I sighed. Everything was back to normal.

I opened the cabinet, pondering over what cereal to have for breakfast. Suddenly, the back door burst open, and all I could see was a flash of red hair before I was having my breath squeezed out of me.

"You're home! You're home!" Kaylie shouted happily, locking me in a death grip of a hug.

"Hey Kaylie," I gasped. "Would you mind letting go?"

Kaylie let go, but didn't bother to stop talking. "I'm so glad you're home!" she squeaked. "I actually had to do stuff with Eric while you were away! He made me play chess with him! I had to clean my room! Oh my gosh, thank goodness you're home!"

I laughed. "As you know, my vacation wasn't exactly pristine either," I said.

"I know," Kaylie said. "I can't believe what happened to you. There's more halfas out there? I already told what I knew to Eric."

"Good," I said. "That should save time, if you did it right."

"Hey!" she said. "I don't forget too much off what people tell me."

"Yeah, so when I told you I was going to Madison on a bus, what did you tell your parents?"

"I told them you were going to Madrid on a bus," she said, looking at her feet.

"And what did you learn?"

"That you cannot go from any point in the United States to Madrid on a bus without drowning," she replied. "What's your point?"

"That your mind occasionally fills in the blanks for you," I answered. "So what are we doing today?"

"I promised Eric we would go cell phone shopping with him."

"What?" I asked. Eric had just been showing off his new cell phone before I had left- it had been his early Christmas present. "Didn't he just get a brand new slider phone for Christmas?"

"Do I really have to tell this story?" Kaylie asked.

"Yes," I said flatly.

"Very well," she sighed. "Eric was showing me how his phone slides up and down again, and how it took pictures, and I said to him, 'Don't you think if you slide it too much it'll break?' and then he said 'Of course not, these things are made to be slid up and down lots of times.' and then I said 'Well, if you keep sliding it like that you'll break it anyway' and then he said 'No I won't' and then he slid the top part clean off the bottom part and it hit one of his mom's antique vases on the mantel. And then I said, 'I told you so.' and then he told me to shut up."

I cracked up into laughter. Typical Eric. Thinks he knows everything.

"So, my mom said she would drop me and you, if you want to come, off at Eric's house whenever we're ready," Kaylie continued.

"Okay," I said. "I just need to get dressed and tell my parents."

Eric's house was much prettier than Kaylie's and much happier than mine. It was filled with very ornate pieces of Spanish art and medals in shadow boxes. The hallways were painted in jewel tones and filled with family pictures from Eric's grandparents as children all the way up to present times. I loved to just meander down the hallway and look at the photos. I guess I found it fun to look at Eric from before I met him.

Eric's parents were the weirdest couple I could imagine. I would never guess that two people so drastically different would ever get married and have children. Eric's mom was from Spain, and often spoke in Spanish to his little sister, Hannah, who responded to the best of her ability. She loved art and always had an easel set up in the living room. She greeted Kaylie and I like we were her own kids and would make us all traditional Spanish food whether we were hungry or not. Mr. Cannon, however, was starkly different. He was a real military man, from his crew cut hair to his shiny shoes. He still liked Kaylie and I, but was very often preoccupied. He was obsessive about his lawn and pool, always clearing away snow to check on both. He read volumes upon volumes about military history and conduct.

Hannah was a character all in herself. Although she was by far the youngest in the Cannon family- six years old, eight years younger than Eric- she walked around the house as if she owned everyone and everything in it. Being six, and quite the girly-girl, she was terribly fascinated with fairy tales. It was all Mrs. Cannon could do to get her out of her fairy-princess costume so they could go out in public. Hannah absolutely adored Eric, trailing him around the house like a little puppy (complete with her big brown eyes). She would constantly ask him to play fairy-princess with her, and although Eric flatly refused when Kaylie and I were around, I had the feeling that he did give in to Hannah's pleading every once and awhile. When she wasn't stalking around Eric, she enjoyed bugging her parents, who gave in every time to those brown eyes. I would often find her cooking with Mrs. Cannon, speaking in Spanish (a skill Eric never acquired) or reading with Mr. Cannon.

On this particular day Hannah was coming with Mrs. Cannon, Eric, Kaylie and I to get Eric's new cell phone, and then we planned to stay for dinner. Listening to Mrs. Cannon argue with Hannah upstairs about her attire, I meandered down the hallway looking at the photos.

I started in the middle, where the first pictures of Eric started to appear after the wedding photos of the Cannon parents. A framed picture of a rather small pink baby with the plaque underneath it, reading 'Eric A. Cannon, Jan. 19', was the first one of Eric. I wondered briefly what the A stood for, but then moved down the row where a toddler with wispy brown hair and big green eyes was sitting on the couch or playing at the beach… a child with darker hair on his first day of kindergarten… I smiled. We had pictures very similar to these of me, only with strange ones of me dressed as a ghost-fighter for Halloween added in (my grandparents made me that costume). Then Hannah was added in, and it was her and Eric at Disneyland… I had just reached one of a nine-year-old Eric standing at a diving platform waving at the camera when I was interrupted.

"What're you doing, Ellie?" Eric asked.

I ignored the question and asked one of my own. "You were on a swim team?" Kaylie looked at Eric as well.

Eric turned slightly red. "Yeah, I was on swim team," he said. "This is a picture of one of my meets. You see, just as that photo was taken, the coach blew the whistle and I wasn't ready. Needless to say, I lost that match."

Kaylie and I giggled. "I wasn't terrible though," Eric said defensively. "When I was eleven, I started to win. And it went right to my head. So I stopped."

"I never really thought of you as competitive," Kaylie said, staring at the picture.

"I'm not, until I win," Eric said. With one last look at the photo, he added, "Come on. We'd better get going."

Kaylie, Eric, and I took the very back seats of the Cannon's huge SUV. It was perfect for plowing right over the snow, and the back seats were private enough so that if we talked low, no one up front could hear us as Hannah chattered away.

"Kaylie told me what happened in Wisconsin," Eric whispered. "So your grandfather's old college friend was a ghost, and now he has a ghost son? And he tried to attack you? That's… I don't know what that is."

"Eric can't even think of a word, Ellie, that's pretty big," Kaylie added.

"It wasn't the fact that he was a ghost that scared me," I said. "It was a shock, but apparently my family has a whole weird history with them; and not a good one. The thing is, I have powers. I have powers I didn't even know existed."

"Like what?" Kaylie breathed. "I didn't get to hear this part of the story."

"I don't know exactly what," I said. "It was kind of like, I discovered them by accident. I was threatened, so my powers just kind of, protected me. The first thing was what Darius called an 'energy blast' or something… I think something shot out of my hand and hit him. The other was kind of like, when I yelled loud enough, so that I was like, screaming, something came out of my mouth that was kind of like moaning… No matter what it was, it sent him flying into that bookcase."

"Wow," Eric said. "This is huge. So, do you know how to control your powers?"

I looked at my hands, then flipped them palm up, as if expecting something to happen or see something out of the ordinary. "No," I sighed. "But when I told Deyton, he said that if Darius really hated me, he would come back. So I guess I better learn what I can do, and be ready for whatever comes at me."

"Do you really think Darius will come back?" Kaylie asked.

"I don't know," I responded. "I did make him very mad. I wouldn't put it past him, I guess."

"Then I guess we've got some work to do," Eric said, almost happily. "Can we help you train? Maybe you have more powers. Ones that you didn't even know about."

I thought about it momentarily. "That's very possible," I said. "Darius could do a lot of things I couldn't."

"Like what?" Eric said, as if mentally taking notes so that he could learn too.

"He could split himself," I said. "Well, kind of. He made like, clones of himself, and they would all do what he did. It was weird."

"That's just weird," Kaylie whispered, shivering slightly.

"Well, if he can do it, maybe Ellie can too," Eric said. "I mean, we've got a friend with ghost powers, Kaylie. It doesn't get much weirder than that."

I couldn't help but nod along. "Yeah, but it seems to me like there's more to this than meets the eye," I said. "This Vlad seems like he's got a whole history behind him, and I heard my parents talking about someone killing the half ghosts. We may be just imagining things when we think that this couldn't get weirder than right now."

Kaylie and Eric nodded. "We're exploring new territory here," Kaylie said.

"I'm not sure about that, though," I contradicted. "I have a feeling someone's been down the same road we're going down now. I think my parents and my uncle have done the same thing we're doing now. Why else would they have ghost files on a computer disk? I think they tried to figure out the ghost world too, at one point. But since no one is willing to tell us anything, we'll just have to do it all over again. You with me?"

"Ellie," Kaylie said, laughing slightly. "We're always with you. How many times do you want us to tell you?"

I smiled too, but it was nice to hear it again.

"What about this one?" Eric asked. "It's another slider phone!"

"No more slider phones!" Kaylie and I yelled together.

"Fine…" Eric said, and continued to browse the store.

We had arrived at the Cingular store, and Eric could not find a single phone he liked. He desperately wanted a new slider phone, no matter how much Kaylie, Mrs. Cannon and I told him no. To me, any phone in here looked decent, but Eric simply couldn't find what he wanted.

"How about this one?" Kaylie inquired, pointing to one of the racks.

"Kaylie, that's not a phone, it's one of the things that holds the brochures," Eric answered.

"Oh, so now you know everything…" Kaylie grumbled.

"Just pick one, Eric!" I urged.

"I don't know what one to pick!" he said, panicking slightly.

Kaylie and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes.

"Eric, what do you want in your phone," Kaylie asked. "What do you want it to do?"

"That's the thing, I don't know!"

I looked around the store. The salespeople were watching us, waiting for us to make a choice, and Mrs. Cannon looked bored. Hannah squirmed in her seat.

"Okay, how about this," I said. "Kaylie and I pick out which ones we think you'd like, and you choose between the two of them."

"Okay…" Eric reluctantly agreed, and sat down next to his sister.

Kaylie and I began to search the store in search of our favorite choices. After about five minutes, we had what we wanted. "Okay, we're ready," I called. Eric got up slowly, as if dreading to see what we had picked out.

Kaylie stood proudly by her phone, a light blue one. Eric inspected it.

"Kaylie, this phone is made for little kids," he said. "It's the Firefly one."

"Yeah, but look, it's got a bunch of different animations on it!" she responded, playing a fun little animation on the screen. Eric ignored her and walked over to me.

"Please tell me you picked out something better," he said. I stepped back.

"Ellie, that's _your_ phone," he said.

I shook my head. "It's my phone _in a different color_."

Eric sighed. I had picked out the Motorola Razor in blue. Truth be told, I did have the exact same phone, only mine was silver. But it was just so neat looking!

"Okay, then," Eric sighed. "I have always liked your phone. So I'll get this one."

"Yes!" I shouted. "We can finally get out of here!"

"Yay!" Kaylie called from the other side of the store, still listening to the Firefly phone's ringtones.

A/N: Sorry, that was a bit of a filler, but I wanted to show everyone Eric's parents because they're such characters, and Eric had to be told about the trip to Wisconsin. I'm sorry this wasn't up sooner, I went camping this weekend. Now, I want to tell you the name of the next chapter before I start writing it, but I can't find my notes... Stupid messy room... I think (keyword: THINK) it's called 'Powerful Practice', but please don't hold me to that. Once I find my story plans (yes, I made story plans- just so I could think of an actual plot and know how many chapters it was going to be- and no, at first, I didn't have a plot because I didn't think anyone would like my story!) I'll know for sure, and then I'll start typing the next chapter. So I hope you enjoy this one and I'll try to post soon!

-Rachel


	29. Powerful Practice

A/N: I am soo, sooo, soooo sorry this took so long to put up, and that it's not all that exciting! My family moved recently, and I've had to settle into a new town and high school all over again. It's been a mess. So please forgive me, and enjoy the story! Next chapter up whenever I finish it.

Chapter Twenty- Nine

Powerful Practice

The day after we got Eric's cell phone, my spirits plummeted. The sky had turned a dreary color of musty old paper, the snow had turned all charcoal-like, and I was left alone with the remainders of my family that had stayed. Just to put a damper on things further, school started again tomorrow. I didn't feel like going back and looking at Lianna's face again for at least another week.

Deyton and I sat at the dusty old table in the basement. Kaylie and Eric had agreed to meet us to check out my ghost powers, another thing I could dread. I didn't exactly feel like being put on display in front of my friends this morning. I desperately wanted to crawl up in a ball on the foot of my bed with my cat and wait until Groundhog Day to get up.

"So what exactly are we doing here?" Deyton asked.

"I don't know," I sighed, pulling my fingers through my hair hard. "It's kind of more up to you guys, isn't it?"

"You're the one with the powers, Ellie," he responded. "This is pretty much in your hands. I gave up a morning of fixing up my skateboard for this."

Without even looking up, I retorted, "Oh, you little liar. I know that you and Dylan just sit on your butts all morning watching Project Runway together."

Deyton turned bright red and didn't respond.

"Just as I thought," I said.

"What did you think?" Kaylie's voice said as she emerged from the stairwell, wrapped tightly in a purple scarf and hat with a large white jacket. She took a sip from a small soda can in her hand, shivered as if an electric current went through her, set it down and began to take off her scarf, hat, and jacket at lightening speed. After moments, she was standing there in her jeans and maroon sweater as if the winter-wear had not been a hindrance at all. "Hello!" she burst out loudly to Deyton and I, then took another shot from what she had been drinking. Another electric current went through her and she began pacing with a huge grin on her face and the can in her hand.

"Kaylie," I said nervously, "if you don't mind me asking, and it's not some kind of illegal substance or something, would you mind telling us what you're drinking?"

"Oh this?" she asking, pointing at the light brown can, her eyes nearly popping out of her head. "These are Starbucks Double Shots. My mom ordered them by accident when she was ordering groceries. I really, really like them. I stayed up late last night, actually until about four in the morning, because I couldn't get the ringtones out of my head, so I took some NyQuil. But I didn't know that it kept you asleep for like eight hours, so when I woke up this morning I took a Starbucks Double Shot and it woke me up, but not all the way up, so I had another one."

Kaylie spoke with jet speed, and I was seriously afraid that her eyes were going to pop out of her head and the racetrack running around her brain would fall out.

"So this is only your second one?" Deyton asked Kaylie.

"Oh no," she said. "This one's my fifth. Plus I had a Frappuccino, too. And I brought another Double Shot and another Frappuccino with me to keep me awake. And now I have to pee."

Deyton and I exchanged looks, and Kaylie didn't move. "For goodness sake, go to the bathroom then!" I said to Kaylie, and she raced up the stairs at Olympic-record-breaking speed.

Deyton and I exchanged weird looks again. Neither of us were sure what to think.

More footsteps were on the stairs, not quite as quick as Kaylie's but definitely in a hurry. Eric appeared on the stairwell, his face entirely lit up with glee. He tore off his jacket just as Kaylie had done and looked at Deyton and I with an almost psychotic look on his face.

"Guess what!" he exclaimed. He was not asking, he was exclaiming, still with the same look on his face. I was about to respond 'What?' when Kaylie appeared behind him.

"Okay, I don't have to pee anymore!" she announced.

"Fine, fine, good for you," Eric responded, pushing her into a chair, where she bounced up and down repeatedly with eyes bigger and brighter than lightbulbs.

"As I was saying-" Eric continued, only to be interrupted again.

"Deyton!" It was my aunt Jazz. I rolled my eyes, wondering if we were ever going to get around to anything.

Aunt Jazz looked haughty and flustered. Being unemployed seemed to be worse for her than being employed- she no longer had anything to do with herself, so she had turned her focus onto everyone else in the house.

"What are you doing down here, Deyton?" she said, just above normal decibel level. I cringed- but at least I wasn't the one getting yelled at today. Just this morning, she had yelled at me for fifteen minutes because I had made too much creaking on the floor. She was really nearing the end of her rope. I looked back at Deyton, who looked slightly fearful of his mother.

"Um… dusting?" he responded.

"Very funny," she said, without a smile even cracking on her face. "You know you're supposed to be doing- well, I don't know what, but you're supposed to be doing something! And what did I tell you about wearing that ridiculous hat in the house?"

"Um… do it?" he asked questioningly.

"No, not 'do it'," Aunt Jazz said, imitating her son. Deyton took off his hat and put it on the table. "Come on, I probably have work for you to do…"

Deyton rolled his eyes and followed. Kaylie, not afraid anymore, started bouncing again, and Eric unpinned himself from the wall, wiping cobwebs off himself.

"What were you saying?" I asked Eric. He thought for a moment, staring up at the ceiling- the thought had apparently been driven from his head.

After a few moments of awkward silence, he suddenly remembered, and his face lit up again. "Guess what!" he said again.

Kaylie, Eric, and I all waited just a few moments, checking to see if there were going to be any interruptions.

Carefully, I said, "What?"

Eric paused again, nearly bursting with glee. Then, he positively exploded: "I got into the National Spelling Bee!"

Kaylie and I looked at each other.

"You were in a spelling bee?" I asked.

"Yes!" Eric said. "Where do you think I've been for like, the past month!"

"You weren't here for the past month?"

"YES!" he yelled. "Does no one pay attention to me?"

"Not really," Kaylie said. She had now donned Deyton's hat, and was beginning to look slightly drowsy. The NyQuil was kicking in again. She took a sip of Double Shot.

"Well, anyway," Eric continued, now looking slightly hurt. "It's in Washington DC, during spring break. I was going to ask you to come with me, but now that I know that no one here really likes me, maybe I'll just ask my other friends…"

"No, no, wait!" I said. "We'd love to go with you."

"Washington DC, huh?" Kaylie said. "Not exactly Miami for spring break…"

Eric gave her a look of contempt, to which she responded. "But heck with that, now we get to watch you spell complicated words!" Eric looked slightly happier. Kaylie also added, "And Eric, you didn't have to make up stuff about other friends to get us to go…"

"I do to have other friends!" he retorted.

"I don't think your little sister counts as another friend, and neither does that weird exchange student that has the locker next to yours," I explained. "Because honestly Eric, I don't think he understands a word you say."

Eric was about to respond angrily, but Deyton came dashing down the stairs again. I could have sworn I heard Eric mumble, "Can't get a word in around here…", but maybe it was just my imagination.

Deyton looked relieved as he sat back down next to Kaylie. "My mom got a phone call from her old assistant," he said. "He never stops crying and complaining."

"Oh, is that that guy with the really big red hair that used to be at her front desk?" I asked. Deyton nodded. "Oh, yeah, he was weird."

Loud snoring emitted from the chair next to Deyton. Kaylie had slumped over onto Deyton's shoulder, sound asleep, still wearing his hat and with the Double Shot nearly spilling out of her hand. He looked from her to everyone else, then said, "Well, let's get started, I guess."

I stood up, and prepared myself to do things that before now, I had never thought possible.


	30. Blast From the Past

Chapter Thirty

Blast from the Past

"Are you ready, Ellie?"

"Just click the dang button!"

"Fine then, you don't have to be all mean about it… Go!"

Deyton pressed the button on his wristwatch, which beeped and set off a timer. I stood in the middle of the basement floor, with Eric, Kaylie, and Deyton standing in the corner watching me. I gave them a quick smile, then ordered myself to change into my ghost form. All of this had become increasingly easy over the past two months or so (it was the end of February now) as I learned more and more about my powers. Kaylie began rattling off orders for me.

"Flight!"

With absolute ease, I lifted myself off the ground and did a flip in the air. "Come on, give me something harder!"

"Intangibility!"

I quickly disappeared and reappeared in front of my friends. They were used to this joke and didn't even jump. "I said to give me something hard."

"Ectoplasmic blasts," Kaylie demanded. I gave her a challenging look and turned around, holding my hands out in front of me.

Kaylie counted as I shot off ectoplasmic rays into the old mattress in the corner. "One… two… three… four… five… six… seven… eight… nine… ten!"

Deyton clicked the stopwatch again. "Fifty-four point eight seconds!" Deyton exclaimed. "New record!"

"Yes!" I said, doing another flip in the air before turning human again and hopping back down onto the cement floor. "Finally, all that practicing is paying off."

"At least for someone it is," Eric said, sulking. "This has been taking up all our time. I miss chess club."

"Oh, come on, Eric," Kaylie responded. "You've enjoyed this and you know it."

"Yeah, I have," Eric said, smiling. "I'm just messing with you." I smiled too.

Diiinnnggg, Doooonnnggg. Someone was at our front door. Deyton, Kaylie, Eric and I looked at each other- weren't we all here already? Who in the world would visit us besides my two friends?

All of us tramped up the stairs and peeked from the living room archway into the foyer, where my dad was opening up the door. He took a quick look at us, realizing that everyone was already there, and opened up the door.

"Hello," said a man's voice on the other side of the door. "I believe my motor home ran out of gas on your front lawn, and I am not getting any reception on my cell phone. May I use your house phone?"

Kaylie and I looked at each other. Besides Eric, who talked like that?

"Erm, yeah, sure…" my dad responded. The man stepped into our house.

He was a rather rotund man. Maybe not quite as large as my grandfather (who I firmly believe is made of fudge) but still, rather large all the same. He was completely bald with only a graying goatee. He headed into our kitchen. Eric, Kaylie, Deyton and I followed behind my father.

My dad gave the man our phonebook, and he flipped through and found towing services. After a short call, he turned to my father. "They will be here very soon, thank you very much for letting me use your phone." The man turned to go. My father got a look of sudden realization.

"Wait a second," he said. "Where are you from?"

"Well, I've been traveling for quite awhile…" the man said. "But I'm originally from Amity Park-"

"Mr. Lancer?" my dad asked.

"Yes, and exactly how do you know-" the man said, and looked around the room at my cousins and I back to my father. "Daniel Fenton?"

"Yes," my dad responded.

"Anne of Green Gables!" the man exclaimed. Kaylie and I looked at each other again.

"Erm, yes, it's me," my dad said, rather awkwardly, as if he regretted recognizing the man now.

"My goodness, you look nothing like how I remember you," he said. "So what have you been up to all these years? Catching up on all that homework you didn't do?"

My dad laughed nervously. "I-I'm married now," he said.

"Really?" the man called Mr. Lancer said. "Not to another old student of mine, though, I'd hope?"

"Actually," my dad laughed. "Do you remember Sam Manson? She was also in our class along with Tucker Foley…"

"Sam Manson?" Mr. Lancer said. "I never really pictured her getting married… I can't really imagine her in a white dress, to tell the truth…"

"We were actually married in Vegas," my dad said, now extremely embarrassed.

"Well, erm, that figures," he said.

"We have a daughter, as well," my dad said, using me as a last chance to look somewhat successful in life. He waved me over, and put his hand on my shoulder as we both smiled awkwardly. "This is Ellie. Sam and I's daughter."

"Really…" Mr. Lancer looked me up and down. "I hope you do your homework more than your father did." He looked back to my dad. "How's your sister?"

My dad smiled, as if he was happy that he was more successful than Aunt Jazz at this point. "Well, she used to own a psychiatry firm."

"Oh," Mr. Lancer said approvingly.

"But it recently fell through, so she and her three kids-" he gestured to Deyton- "have been living with Sam and I."

Mr. Lancer looked shocked. "Well, erm, children?"

"Yes, triplets," my dad said. "Dylan, Danielle, and Deyton." Deyton waved.

"So she must have been married..."

"We don't really tell that story too often," my dad said. Deyton shook his head.

"Oh, okay," Mr. Lancer said, shocked at how messed up our family had gotten. "Well, erm, Danny, congratulations on your erm… success… and say hello to everyone for me. Goodbye, and have a nice life."

He hurried out of the house. My dad smiled. "He was always a little strange."

"You think?" Deyton and I said.

"And he taught you and Mrs. Fenton?" Eric asked.

"Yep," my dad answered. "He wasn't the greatest teacher."

"So you met your wife in high school?" Kaylie asked.

My dad thought for a moment. "Well, yeah, actually, probably even before that… we've known each other so long it's really kind of hard to keep count any more."

We all smiled. My mom walked into the room, carrying Phanny with her and stroking her ears. "Who was at the door?" she asked casually.

"You'll never guess," my dad said.

"I didn't intend to guess," my mom said. "But now you have me curious. Give me a clue."

My dad did a crude imitation. "Lord of the Flies!"

"No," my mom said in disbelief.

"Yes," my dad responded.

"Lancer?" she said.

My dad nodded. "I can't believe it," my mom said. "Thank goodness I wasn't here."

"Lucky," my dad said. "He started asking about-"

My mom never got to find out what he was asking about. Diiiinnnggg. Doooonnnggg. The doorbell rang again. Again, we all looked at each other- everyone was accounted for. Aunt Jazz, Dylan, and Danielle were all upstairs. What in the world was going on? I prayed that Mr. Lancer wasn't back.

My dad opened the door again, as the rest of us looked on. The door swung open, and my jaw nearly dropped.

My dad stared for a second. "Danni?"

A/N: You know, I was going to tell why Danni was there at the end of that chapter, but I just want to keep you all wondering. Enjoy the Danny Phantom movie tonight!

I know you all probably hate me now because of that cliffhanger, but I'll try to get the next chapter up soon.

-Rachel


	31. Back to Haunt Us

**Chapter Thirty-One**

**Back to Haunt Us**

"Danni?"

"It's me," the woman named Danni said, smiling. "Surprised?"

"A bit more than surprised," my dad said, and in my head, I was agreeing too. This was the same woman who helped me discover my powers, the same woman I had seen in that picture I found in the attic. She looked almost exactly the same, only she was in her human form now. She had an almost vagabond appearance, with long ragged hair falling about her shoulders and clothes that looked as if she slept in them.

"Gosh, Danni, I haven't seen you since- since, well, before Ellie was born," my dad said, thinking back.

"That's right," Danni said. "Last time I saw you, you were freaking out about becoming a dad, and Sam was as big as a house."

"Hey," my mom said.

"It is true, Sam," my dad said. "Ellie was bigger than Dylan, Deyton, and Danielle combined."

"Hey!" I responded.

"Anyway, come on in, Danni," he said. "How did you have any idea where we were?"

"Danny, you should know better than to ask that," Danni said. "You know I have my ways."

"Of course," he said. We all went and sat down in the kitchen, with Eric, Deyton, and Kaylie surrounding me.

"So that's the lady you told us about?" Deyton whispered in my ear. I nodded, and all three of them stared at the woman momentarily.

"I thought she would look different," Kaylie said. "You know… A bit less like she wandered all the way from Utah."

I shrugged. As of right now, I wasn't sure what to think. My parents continued to talk to the woman.

"So Danni, what had you been up to for fifteen years?" my mom asked.

"You know, a little of this, a little of that," she responded. "I tried to be an accountant, and that didn't work out; neither did being a horse whisperer, nor did my job as a mechanic… tried being a realtor… so now I'm kind of just picking up jobs. It doesn't pay much, but I'm a lot happier than before. I get to roam the country and see a lot of things other people don't. Well, you're definitely one to know I never liked being tied down."

My dad nodded, smiling, as if he were remembering something from a very long time ago. "So, just you, out there, making your way around? Doesn't it get lonely?" he asked.

"Well, sometimes I can't help but want someone to talk to when I'm in the hills of Montana with nothing in sight and no radio connection," she said. "But after awhile, you really get used to it and kind of enjoy it. When I first started traveling, though, I did have a companion."

"Really?" my dad said. "Who?"

"I had a friend named Jacob whom I traveled with," she explained. "After awhile, we got engaged… he went back home, and we got a house… this was when I was a realtor, so we got a nice house. Then I started traveling again, and wrote home a lot. Then he asked when exactly I planned to get married, and to come back home, stop wasting my time roaming around, looking for who knows what. After awhile, I decided I couldn't stop traveling. I loved the feeling of being by myself- and I couldn't stay that way if I ever got married. I always had trouble being a 'we' instead of an 'I'. So we broke up, and I've been traveling ever since."

There was a slightly shocked silence after this. I completely forgot everything I had assumed about Danni, and simply felt sorry for her, and for Jacob. My parents must have thought the same thing.

"You should've called us, Danni," my mom said. "We would have helped you."

"Helped me what?" she said. "I made a decision, and that's that, I guess."

"Did you ever hear from Jacob again?" I asked.

"Of course not, I travel so much I'm never in one place long enough to hear from anyone," Danni said. "I'm sorry I never visited or wrote to you guys. I thought about it, but just never had the time. I would have loved to hear about you two, and about Ellie when she was growing up."

"Well, at least you're here now," my mom said. "You're welcome whenever you want, Danni."

"Thanks," she said.

My parents continued to talk to Danni over coffee. I listened intently, trying to learn about her past. She seemed like a very interesting person, and she really was, but hidden under everything, she seemed kind of disappointed with her life.

I was the one who got to show Danni back to her car. It was slightly old, but still in good condition, with lots of stuff jumbled around inside. It was obvious that Danni liked her car, seeing as she chose basically to live out of it.

Danni looked at me. "Ellie, you and I both know that this was not my first time meeting you," she said.

I nodded. "You really helped me a lot that night, but now I'm just so confused-" I looked down at both our feet, and shook my head slightly. "I don't know what to do with all this."

"Ellie, it's okay, I know that it's really a confusing thing to have," Danni said. "But it gets much simpler as time goes on. There's a reason why I brought it up though."

"Okay," I said. "Why?"

"Ellie, I can't really say too much in case... he's listening…" Danni looked around, and I was slightly scared now. "But there's just something I really think that you need to know about ghosthunting. When you discovered about your powers… you started treading on dangerous territory. When you were born, you were in danger. The ghost world is a chaotic place, there's no order to it, and there's a lot of evil lurking behind every turn. Your dad may be famous there, but he has just as many enemies as friends, and now that you're a ghost too… you're just walking in a minefield."

"I don't remember this coming up when you showed me these powers," I said indignantly. Why would she not warn me? This woman just waltzed me right into a minefield without my consent. Wasn't that a bit… wrong?

"You were bound to find out anyway, and I would've much rather you learned it from me... well, actually, I would've much rather you learned it from your dad. He's always been uncomfortable with the thought that you might end up with some of his powers," Danni whispered. "He thought it would be a dangerous thing for you. He was hurt so many times when he was your age because of those powers, and he didn't want that for you. He knew that his enemies would be after you too, especially if you had powers. And now you do, so that's just how it is." She sighed.

"Does my dad know I have powers?" I said, my heart beating.

"Not to my knowledge," Danni said. "But he probably has his suspicions. He was in your situation once, remember that, so he knows what's going on. It's your choice to tell him or not, but I think you should. When you're ready."

I smiled at Danni. She wouldn't tell on me.

"Anyway, Ellie, I have to go." She hugged me like a normal aunt would and crawled into her car. "You just remember what I told you Ellie. You're walking on thin ice. But you can always get a hold of me." She passed me a card with a number and a PO box on it. "Anytime, Ellie. And always remember to confide in your friends; they'll help you get by." She paused. "You look so much like your dad. And, well, you act so much like him too. I'm just trying to say… be careful."

She turned on the engine and pulled out of the driveway. I kept waving as she drove away, even when she couldn't see me anymore. Then I turned on my heel and went back to the house- Danni was right. I had to confide in my friends.

That night, I went in and immediately told Eric, Kaylie, and Deyton what was going on. We spent over and hour speculating, looking at the CD I had found again, but we didn't come up with much. Everyone concluded that it was just going to have to wait, because we simply didn't have enough evidence to go on.

The blackened snow along the road melted at the beginning of March, leaving a blustery, frigid climate in its place. There was no longer anything pretty to look at in the landscape. Wet leaves clung to the ground like wet hair coming out the swimming pool and the wind whipped across your face like a bullet whizzing past you. The buses had no heat so frost accumulated on the seats, leaving the back of your legs wet and your butt cold by the time you got to school. Deyton now sat with Kaylie and I on the bus, cramming me up against the window while Kaylie enjoyed being squished against Deyton. March lulled on as boring as the sky was grey.

The only thing of even mild interest was the fact that school got new staff- two new counselors to replace old Mrs. Whittlebey, who was over eighty years old and had probably seen the Civil War. But even with this 'exciting' turn of events, everything was as dull as ever. I had no sense of danger whatsoever, and I kind of wished I did, because it would have been much more riveting than hearing about how Peneplains were formed in Earth Science. I felt like I was in more of deserted gray grassland than a minefield.

There was a spider crawling along the wall over the blackboard in the science classroom. I watched as it made its journey from one side of the board to the other, wondering if its life was more exciting than mine right now. At least it was going somewhere, whereas I, on the other hand, was studying tectonic plates. Actually, I was doodling on the vocabulary packet and not bothering to copy down the terms. The clock seemed to slow to a stop as I finished my little doodle of a blueberry muffin. Finally, as I just finished a doodle of a huge dog eating the blueberry muffin, the bell rang. Finally, my last class- Algebra.

I stopped at my locker to get my algebra book. My locker was right next to the triplets- there was no room left in the sophomore hallway for them, so they were put in the freshman hallway. Now I had to see them pretty much all day long, except for during class, although I did have to share typing with Dylan, who whispered in my ear all the time so I couldn't concentrate. But luckily it was only typing.

I put my earth science book back in the locker and quickly grabbed my algebra book, which was by far heavier. I shoved it into my bookbag and turned around, nearly running into two of the most random people I had never expected to run into.

I guessed they were the new counselors, because I had never seen them anywhere in the school before. Also, no one in the school dressed in suits like they did- clean cut, primped to the number, and with eerie smiles on their faces. I was a little scared- was in trouble?

"Ellie!" the male one said, standing next to the female one. He was quite short and stocky with sleek hair and a round, but not really happy, face. "So nice to meet you."

I wondered how they knew my name. I didn't even know theirs. "Well, erm, same, I guess," I mumbled, trying to go around and make my way to class.

"We thought we would get to meet the students, and you were first on our list!" the female counselor said. I was a little scared.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because you seemed like such an interesting person, Ellie, from what your teachers have said to us," the female one said.

This struck me as very odd- I would have bet good money none of my teachers even knew my name, and these people certainly hadn't been here long enough to hear anything about me anyway. I had a strong impulse to get away as soon as possible.

"I'm sorry, but I really need to get to class," I said. The hallways had already emptied.

"Okay, Ellie, we wouldn't want to keep you from your studies," the man said. "Just take our card, and drop by as soon as you can! We would just love to talk to you." The man handed me a card, which I quickly took from his pudgy hand and shoved into my back pocket.

"Erm, nice meeting you," I mumbled, not meaning it at all. I sidestepped both of them and made a mad dash for the stairwell. Halfway up the steps, the bell rang- I was officially late. Stupid creepy people, making me late. I was never late.

I quietly opened the math room door, hoping to slip in unnoticed. Mr. Irving wore very thick glasses due to poor eyesight and didn't hear all that well, so maybe he wouldn't notice me coming in.

But as I entered, I realized that there was no chance of me not getting recognized; because the teacher at the front of the room was definitely not Mr. Irving.

Atlas. Atlas was standing in the front of the class. Just my luck.

"Miss Fenton!" Atlas cried out.

"Here?" I said.

"Why are you late?" he asked. He was dressed in the same blue I had always seen him in, only this time he was wearing a collared work shirt.

"I got caught up in the hallway," I explained.

"Sit down!" he said. I sat. I groaned inwardly. Of course Atlas was our new math teacher- that was just exactly, pinpointed, precisely my type of luck. He was back to haunt us.

A/N: Hi, Guys! Sorry about the wait. Fanfiction wouldn't let me sign on or submit the chapter for awhile, but it's here! Anyway, December 3rd will be the 1st Anniversary of Welcome to Specterton being online. Amazing, isn't it?

I love you, guys!

-Rachel


	32. Takeoff

Chapter Thirty-Two

Takeoff

March passed on to an extremely rainy spring. It was nearly relentless and I felt like I had moved into the Pacific Northwest- or the rainforest. Buds came onto the trees around the beginning of April, and the excitement of spring break coming up set into Eric, Kaylie, and I. We were actually going somewhere, and although I know going to Washington D.C. for spring break isn't exactly Miami, it excited us all the same.

Kaylie came over to help me pack. Not that she had even started to think about packing herself, but she just decided that she would rather bother me about how I was packing. She kept on giving me tips, and sometimes I wondered where exactly her source for those tips was. (Example: She told me to put my underwear in mayonnaise jars. What the heck was that about?)

After she told me to put pickles in my shoes to keep them fresh, and I made an off color comment about telling her to go eat mayonnaise and pickles (with a few other words in-between, by the way- luckily no one heard me but her) and stop bothering me, she pulled out her iPod and started dancing around my room instead, singing rather badly. At least she wasn't telling me to replace my toothpaste with tomato paste or something anymore.

Finally, I shoved my toiletries bag, my last thing, on top of all my clothes and zipped my bag shut. "Done!" I exclaimed.

"What?!" Kaylie asked. She took out her headphones so that she could hear me again.

"I said that I'm done," I repeated. "What are you listening to anyway?" I heaved my bag off my bed and next to my door.

"New band," Kaylie said. "Knights of Fire. They're actually not that bad- and they're from Pennsylvania, which is cool. They're almost, like, entrancing, the way they play their music."

"Ah," I said. I thought for a moment. "You excited for Washington?"

"Heck yeah," Kaylie said.

I had to wake up at three in the morning to go to Eric's house the next morning. We had to load up the car and drive all the way to Harrisburg International Airport, where we would have to park the car, walk all the way up with our bags, be checked ten thousand times, go through security, and board, while all the while dealing with little Hannah complaining. It was going to be a fun day.

My mom was the one who shook me awake in the morning. She was dressed in her black bathrobe with a weary, tired face. I didn't look much better.

"Do I have to wake up?" I said. "You can just put me in my bag and by the time we're at the airport I'll be able to wake up."

"Hey, if I have to get up at three AM for you to go to Washington, then you're getting up, too," my mom said. "I made you fruit salad for the ride. Just get dressed, and I'll take you to the Cannons'."

Sleepily, I sagged onto the floor, and, not feeling like getting up, crawled across my room to my dresser. I pulled out my clothes, and pulled myself up while holding onto my drawer. I got dressed, and then went into the bathroom adjoined to my room.

I had to share my bathroom with Aunt Jazz. I honestly wished I didn't, but Aunt Jazz had to have one of the biggest rooms and that just happened to be the one adjoined to mine. I pushed away her makeup on the vanity and found my toothbrush, then lazily brushed my teeth and went into the hallway.

My feet dragged on the carpet, and I skimmed my fingers along the wall. I was making a world of noise, but I really didn't care. If I had to be up, then maybe everyone else should be, too.

I used the back stairway to enter downstairs, and began eating my fruit salad at the kitchen table. The fruit was almost tasteless to me, because the taste of the toothpaste was overpowering it. I could hear my mom turning on the TV in the family room, and abandoning my bland fruit salad, went in and sat next to her.

I was just about to ask what we were watching when there was a knock at the door. Who would come to the door at three in the morning? Well, we seemed to attract an odd crowd anyway, as I had learned, so maybe it was another strange vague person from my parents' past again.

My mom and I got up, extremely suspicious of what was going on. She opened the door to the foyer. There was a man in a uniform from some shipping company or other, standing with a clipboard in his hands and a large moving truck behind him near that road that had driven up onto our lawn.

"Your moving truck has arrived from…" the man paused and flipped a few pages on his clipboard, "Amity Park…" again, he looked at the clipboard, "for a Miss Jasmine Fenton."

"Sir, it's three in the morning," my mom explained. "I'm sure that we didn't order that truck to come until at least three in the _afternoon_."

The man flipped through the papers nervously again. "Yes, I do believe you're right," he said. "Can you please just take it now? We need to be in New Jersey by noon, and my boss would kill me if we were late."

"Fine…" my mom agreed.

My mom called down everyone to help unload the truck, and Aunt Jazz signed for it. I constantly reminded my parents that I had to be at Eric's. Soon, they would say. Just hold on a minute. Every time I sighed heavily- was I never going to get to start my spring break?

So, to get the process moving, I put all my bags in the back of our car and then sat on the bumper, waiting. Dylan and Deyton were now fawning over all of their stuff that they had been reunited with.

Deyton gasped, looking in the truck. "My bookshelves!"

"They actually packed those things?" I said in disbelief. Two years ago, Deyton had refused to buy bookshelves and instead made his own out of scrap plywood and cinderblocks that he had found in the back of his school while it was undergoing renovation. Everyone in the family hated those things- they were ugly and dusty and dirty and still smelled like all the debris that had been in the school.

"Of course they packed them!" Deyton said. "They're one of a kind!"

I rolled my eyes.

Finally, after every bit of furniture had been inspected, and I had gone on a long rant about how I needed to leave now if I ever wanted to catch my plane, my dad decided to drive me over to Eric's.

"Are you excited?" he said to me as we pulled out of the driveway.

"Of course I am," I responded. "Why do you think I was so eager to leave?"

"Well, I kind of assumed that you just really didn't want to help carry Deyton's bookshelves inside," he said, and we both laughed.

After a moment or two, he started talking to me again, more seriously. "You be careful in Washington, Ellie, and everywhere else you go," my dad said. "There are lots of things that could happen to you, and I won't be there to help you. So you need to stay close to Kaylie and Eric and Mr. and Mrs. Cannon."

"I will, Dad," I said. I had heard this all before, but now there seemed to be certain urgency in his voice. Almost like the way Danni had talked to me when she told me to be careful.

Finally, we reached Eric's house. Everything in Specterton looked creepier when it was dark out, even Eric's house, which I had always deemed cheery. Instead of its usual happy brick red color it usually had, it had turned almost blood red in the dark. But most certainly a happy sight for me was that of Mr. Cannon loading bags into the minivan- all of a sudden I was wide awake with anticipation of what was going to happen on this trip.

I got out of the car and pulled the bags out of the backseat. My dad opened his window.

"Bye, dad," I said, kissing him on the cheek. "I'll see you in a few days."

"Bye, Ellie," he said. "Be careful. I love you. Bye."

"I love you, too," I said, and with one final wave, he backed out of the driveway and headed home.

"Good luck with Deyton's bookshelves!" I yelled after him, and I could almost hear his laughter down the road.

"Good morning, Mr. Cannon," I said, placing my bag next to the pile of others.

"Morning," he grunted, loading a particularly heavy bag into the car. "I'm not sure if it's a good one though, what with all these dang bags…"

We both laughed a little. "Where's Eric?" I asked.

"Inside," Mr. Cannon responded. "Kaylie's in there, too. Who knows what the heck they're doing, though."

I headed inside.

Kaylie and Eric were sitting on the sofa in the living room, while Hannah sat in a fairy princess outfit on the floor surrounded by Barbies. Kaylie and Eric sat cross-legged facing each other, Kaylie with a dictionary in front of her.

"Agglomerate," Kaylie said, peering down at the dictionary.

"A," Eric began.

"Q," Hannah imitated.

"G," Eric said, trying to ignore his sister.

"M," Hannah said, continuing to imitate her brother.

"G," Eric said.

"I," Hannah responded.

"Shut up Hannah!" Eric yelled at his sister, who merely stuck her tongue out at him and continued to play.

Kaylie made an obnoxious buzzing noise. "No, I'm sorry, 'shut up Hannah' was not the correct answer," she said, shutting the dictionary. I laughed.

"Ellie!" Kaylie burst. "Finally!"

"I see you're having lots of fun studying," I said.

Eric groaned.

"Don't worry, Eric, you'll do fine," Kaylie said. "You were doing great before."

"Anyway, how did you get into this whole spelling bee thing?" I asked. He had never really explained.

"I started winning in eighth grade," Eric said. "But then there was a whole entire round of finals and a whole bunch of mix-ups, so the bee was actually postponed until this year. It's not supposed to be for people who have graduated eighth grade, but since none of the eighth graders from last year could compete and have since gone on to high school, last year's group in competing this year. It's really kind of cool, if you think about it."

"Cool is a relative term, I guess," Kaylie said. Eric pushed her off the couch.

We all loaded into the minivan not too long after Kaylie was pushed onto the floor (after that, she pulled Eric down with her, so they both had bruised tailbones by the time we got into the car). Kaylie had to sit in the middle row with Hannah because there wasn't enough room for her and some of the luggage in the backseat with Eric and I. We turned on a movie on the DVD player in the backseat, but Eric and I weren't really watching it.

Eric stared out the window aimlessly, worry in his eyes.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"What if I mess up horribly?" he said. "All the words are really hard…"

"Eric," I said. "You are the most obsessively correct speller I know, and I mean that in a good way. There's no way that you're going to mess up. Besides, you've performed in front of people before."

"Playing my saxophone in jazz band in front of the school is very different from spelling 'astragalomancy' in front of the entire country," he explained.

"Not really," I said, thinking. "It's the same idea. Just don't look at the crowd. Look into the lights, and you won't see anything. That's what you told me at the academic awards, and it worked."

"Ellie, when you looked into those lights you tripped and fell in front of the entire audience. Luckily though, it was just parents…" he added, then took a deep sigh and put his head in his hands. "I'm sorry, Ellie, I just don't know if I can do it…"

"Hey," I said. He looked up at me with his perfect green eyes, and I took his hand in mine. "If I can transform into a ghost and learn how to walk through walls and shoot energy blasts and at the same time avoid whatever is out to get me, you can stand up in front of a crowd and spell anything. You were there when I needed you, and now I'm here. And I'm telling you: you are good enough, and you can do this." I squeezed his hand.

"You're the best, Ellie," he said. He looked for a moment like he might kiss me on the cheek like I did to him at Christmas, but instead he just squeezed my hand back. A chill ran up my spine, and I loosed my grip on his hand, but yet he still held on. For the rest of the ride, we stayed almost like that, hand loosely in hand, almost like we didn't know what to do, or how we should react to it. And deep down inside, I think I began to understand that how I felt about Eric was mutual- it wasn't just Kaylie telling us how we felt about each other. We knew now.

This was going to be an interesting trip.


	33. Holiday Inn

Chapter Thirty-Three

Holiday Inn

The Harrisburg International Airport was a nightmare- no, worse than a nightmare. Even though it was still extremely early in the morning, it was packed like Black Friday in New York City. I couldn't believe it- people were everywhere, with cell phones and blackberries and mounds and mounds of luggage- it was like nothing I had ever seen before. And we had to park all the way in the back and carry our luggage- Mrs. Cannon was actually forced to leave some of her stuff behind to lighten the load of her bag. And then, halfway through the parking lot, Hannah got tired and Eric had to give his bags to his dad and carry her.

The baggage line was terrible. Mr. Cannon had us put our carry-ons in our main luggage to go into cargo so that we could get through security faster. Kaylie wouldn't stop whining about not having her DS and Eric asked repetitively how he was supposed to study without his dictionary. Meanwhile, Hannah fell asleep on Eric's shoulder.

Hannah had to be checked at security, and woke up extremely frightened because she didn't know where she was. It took all of our willpower to get her to stand still while a security guard waved a wand over her, which she was terrified of, so she began to cry. The crying stopped when a guard gave her a pink lollipop though, but then there was the issue of Mr. Cannon setting off every metal alarm because he just couldn't seem to find all the metal objects in his pockets.

Finally, we reached the terminals, where we had to make a mad dash all the way to the end. We boarded the plane just in time- the engine started just as we sat down.

I had never been on a plane before. We had driven from Amity Park, and had never really gotten to travel on a plane because we always took my grandparents' RV.

"Look, Eric!" I exclaimed. "Trays!"

"Yes, Ellie," he responded. "But you're not supposed to take them down until we're up in the air."

So, instead of playing with the trays, I read all the safety manuals and watched the pictures of flowers flow across the TV in front of us. It was almost like being on a luxury bus, only better.

Finally, the flight attendant came out and started talking to us about what to do if the plane crashed (I wondered why she told us that our seats could be used as floatation devices even though we weren't going near the ocean- but I did want to get up and pull out my seat just to see if what she was saying was true). Kaylie had already plugged her ears with iPod headphones and was no longer listening, which wasn't surprising, because she went on a plane all the time to see her family in Arkansas.

Now, I may be a half ghost who can lift off the ground any time I want, and I may be able to destroy just about anything with the flick of my wrist and walk through walls, but taking off in a plane is one of the most fantastic things I have ever experienced. The feeling of lifting off the runway into the air made me feel like I was on some kind of magical shuttle, which I repeatedly told Eric and Kaylie until they told me to shut up.

I looked out the window the entire trip, which must have been annoying to Kaylie, because she had the window seat, and I had to lean all the way across her to see. Luckily for her, it was only a forty-five minute ride.

I was extremely disappointed when the plane touched down again at the airport. Kaylie, on the other hand, was relieved, and Eric turned extremely pale. The idea of actually being at the place where he was going to perform scared him, because now he knew that he actually did have to go through with the spelling bee.

The Reagan International Airport was even more crowded than the one at Harrisburg. I had to hold onto the back of Eric's shirt and Kaylie's sleeve to keep from being separated from them. Mr. and Mrs. Cannon held onto little Hannah for dear life, especially after she got her foot stepped on by an angry businessman (he certainly got an earful from Mr. Cannon). She was carried most of the way. Finally we were out the door, and I would have knelt down and kissed the ground if it wasn't covered in people's old blackened gum.

I was even more relieved when we got in our rent-a-car and drove away.

The Holiday Inn we were going to stay at was only six blocks away from the White House, and we passed the Pentagon and a metro station. Kaylie was fascinated by all of this- she may have been on a plane before, but she had never been to Washington.

"My gosh," Kaylie said as we drove down the street. "It's like suit city here. Everyone is wearing some kind of suit."

"That's just how Washington DC is, Kaylie," Eric said. "Loads of people in suits. Isn't it cool?"

"You use the term 'cool' really loosely, don't you?" Kaylie responded.

Eric decided not to respond to that, but by now we were all at the hotel. I always got excited at hotels, you know, staying away from home… but no one got more excited about it than Eric. The idea of free soap was like Christmas to him.

Kaylie and I had a room to ourselves- Eric had already called it the 'crazy room' and we weren't even in it yet. But it was guaranteed to be. Kaylie had brought an entire bag of Mega M&M's. It was going to be a wild night. The Cannons weren't going to be able to get any sleep, because they said they were going to keep the adjoining doors open at night. Good luck to them.

Mr. Cannon checked us in, and as soon as we had our keycards, Eric dashed for the elevator. As I said, it's like Christmas to him. Kaylie and I followed suit.

As soon as the keycard was slid through the lock, we all crowded into the Cannons' room. To me, it looked just like any other hotel room. Bland wallpaper that strongly reminded me of tapioca pudding, pueblo rose colored bedspreads, and a forest green couch that had lost a little form from being sat on by so many people. There was a color TV (as advertised- really who advertises that they have a color TV? Everyone has one.) sitting on a pudding-colored dresser. But to Eric, this place was magic waiting to happen.

"Look at all the free stuff we get!" he said excitedly. Apparently he had forgotten about the spelling bee altogether.

"Look at the beds!" Hannah exclaimed. She immediately ran over and climbed up on one, and began hopping like a rabbit that had just been shocked. "This one's my bed!"

Kaylie and I's room wasn't much different, except our couch was a different pattern and our bedspreads were forest green instead of pueblo rose. Kaylie began jumping on one of our beds like Hannah.

"What are you doing?" I asked, following her movement like I was watching a vertical tennis match.

"Just seeing if it was any fun," she responded. "My mom never let me jump on the beds. I was just seeing what all the fuss was about… but honestly, it's only making me dizzy." She hopped down and sat on the edge. "It's not all it's cracked up to be."

"You've never jumped on the beds before?" I asked. "What did you do when you were little to entertain yourself?"

"Oh, I've jumped on the bed before," Kaylie said. "But I don't remember it. When I was five and Eli was seven, we jumped on my parents' bed. Then I jumped too far and fell and hit my head on my parents' nightstand. I needed six stitches. But I don't really remember what happened all that well... must've been the head injury." Kaylie shrugged. "Hey, wanna break out the M&M's?"

"I think we're going out to dinner soon, Kay," I said.

"Dang it," Kaylie whispered to herself.

We went out to dinner to a Spanish restaurant. Mrs. Cannon had to read the menus to us, seeing as none of us knew Spanish except for Hannah, who couldn't even read yet. The food was very good- I just didn't understand much of what was being said.

Later that night, Kaylie finally got to crack open her bag of M&M's. She poured them all into our ice bucket and instead made a 'chocolate bucket'. Her, Eric and I all sat in a circle on one of the beds and took turns popping brightly colored M&M's into our mouths.

"Are you nervous, Eric?" Kaylie said. "Now that you're here?"

Eric thought for a moment, and I thought he was going to break down like he did on the way here. But instead he turned to Kaylie with a smile on his face. "No," he responded calmly.

"Really?" she said.

He thought for another moment. "Yeah," he said. "If I'm good enough to be here, then I'm good enough to win."

"I thought you would flip out," Kaylie said. "But I guess I was wrong. Good for you, Eric." And with that, she popped a blue M&M into the air and had it land safely into her mouth. Then she looked up. "I've got to go check my blood sugar before I go to bed. I promised my mom and dad that I would."

She scampered off to the bathroom. Sometimes I almost forgot that Kaylie was actually diabetic.

Eric covered the bucket with the plastic bag that came in it.

"You really okay?" I asked, now that Kaylie was out of earshot.

Eric looked at me nicely and nodded. "I thought about it," he said. "And you're right. You're great for telling me. I can do this just as much as anyone else can." He put his hand briefly on my shoulder, put down the bucket, and headed for the adjoining door.

"No, Eric," I said. He turned and looked at me. "You can't do this just as much as anyone else. You can do it better."

He smiled at me, a smile filled with all the courage he had now. "Goodnight, Ellie," he said, and turned and went into his room.

A/N: I really hoped you enjoyed your two Holiday chapters, although they really didn't take place during the holidays. The next few chapters will have many, many new surprises for you, including a turn of events in Washington, and when they get home, a new character. I can't wait to write these chapters! I will try to get them up as soon as I can. So until then, Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, and a Wonderful Kwanza, along with a brilliant New Year! I hope all of you enjoy your holiday as I enjoy mine.

Happy Holidays to all, and to all a good night!!!!

Much Holiday spirit from Rachel.


	34. The Bee

A/N: Please enjoy this chapter, and just... I'm very, very sorry, in advance.

Chapter Thirty-Four

The Bee

Eric was a pale shade of green by the time Kaylie and I sat down next to him at breakfast the next morning. He seemed to be against eating anything or even looking at food. Eventually Mrs. Cannon brought over some dry toast and a cup of water, reminding him of the one year the spelling champion fainted onstage. She said she didn't want that to happen to him.

Kaylie and I, on the other hand, chowed down on our complementary breakfast. There's nothing like free bagels and jam in the morning, if you ask me.

Eric only took about three nibbles of his toast and a sip of his water before running into the bathroom and nearly throwing up. He came back out extremely pale and very wobbly. He was helped back to his seat by his mom as people stared at us; I think they thought Eric was drunk or something.

"What happened to your confidence, Eric?" Kaylie said.

Meekly, Eric replied, "Oh, I'm confident that I can spell words. I'm not so sure I can look into that crowd and not die, though." He looked back down at his toast darkly and took another nibble of it.

The next hour was spent devoted to what Eric was going to wear. Mrs. Cannon held things up to the paper white Eric until he became almost too woozy to stand up. I sat next to him on the couch and handed him saltines to eat until Mrs. Cannon finally picked out and outfit.

The Spelling Bee was to be held at the Washington Convention Center. Eric made his way to a circle of other nervous kids that were going to be in the bee after a short, soft "goodbye" to us.

Kaylie, Hannah and I had made posters while Eric wasn't around the previous night. Kaylie's said "Go", mine said "Eric", and because there really wasn't any other words left, Hannah got to be the exclamation point. Together we were "Go Eric!". I hoped that when he looked out and saw us, maybe it would make poor Eric just a little less nervous.

Our seats were pretty close to the front. There was a huge stage with many seats.

"I never thought this day would come," Mr. Cannon said. "I always pictured Eric graduating from the Junior CIA like I did, not in the spelling bee."

I turned to Mr. Cannon. "What's the Junior CIA?"

"I'm sorry, that's classified," he said.

"Well, what do you do there?" I asked.

"That's classified," he responded.

"If you can't say what it is or what you do there, how do you sign up?" I asked, now frustrated.

"I'm very sorry, but that's classified information," Mr. Cannon said sternly. I sighed and gave up.

The front stage was decorated for the event with the "Scripps National Spelling Bee" plaque with a picture of a bee right in the center. Blue was draped in the background, and a panel of judges was in the front. They all appeared to be old tightwads if you ask me, but hey, maybe it's just how you look at it.

I was about to look around and see the rest of the crowd when I spotted Kaylie looking down at something on her lap.

"What do you have?" I asked her like she was a two-year-old with a toy in her mouth.

"Nothing," she responded like a two-year-old with a toy in her mouth. It was extraordinarily obvious that she had a Nintendo DS in her lap with the volume turned down.

"Come on Kaylie," I said. "Do you have your DS?" I tried to pull it away from her.

"No!" she yelled. "Do you see me trying to take your stuff?"

"Kaylie, you took my toothbrush this morning," I said. "Anyway, we're here to see Eric, and you're playing video games! That's not very respectful to our friend." (This was not a very good argument seeing as Mr. Cannon was already dozing in his seat and Mrs. Cannon was reapplying her makeup while Hannah played with a Barbie. Was I the only one here who came to see Eric?)

"Hey, I'll pay attention when he's up there," she said. "Round one isn't even an oral one. He'll just be sitting up there writing on a piece of paper. Why do we need to watch that?"

"Fine," I said. "But when round two comes around, you better turn that thing off."

"Yes, mom," Kaylie said, sticking her tongue out at me, which I returned.

The announcer that walked out on stage looked much like the judges, as if years studying behind a dictionary had hardened him into a wrinkly, dowdy old rock of a man. I looked at him and thought of grandfather; for once I was grateful to have fudge-filled soft giggly grandfather rather than this cold hardened being that was in front of us.

Each contestant was called out, all one hundred or so of them, two from each state. Eric was the Pennsylvania representative along with someone named Yeardley Harshakimilinitly (Kaylie began cracking up at his name and we got several looks from the people around us). I listened for anyone from Amity Park and heard nothing. It wasn't all that surprising; Amity Park was the type of town that turned out D and C students, not spelling champions.

Eric was number thirty-two. He sat towards the middle in the huge rows of seats so that I really couldn't see him unless I leaned towards Hannah and squinted my eyes. He was just another brown-haired average-height boy in an entire crowd of them; he didn't even have on his glasses so that I could identify him that way. He had chosen (in other words, Mrs. Cannon had told him to) wear his contacts today.

Kaylie played her Gameboy through most of Round One, and not too long after the man started reading out words and the members of the spelling bee began writing them down, I started leaning over and watching the screen.

"Ellie, are you watching me play the Gameboy?" she asked me like I was two, just as I had done to her earlier.

"No," I responded the same way she had.

"Yes you are," she said. "What happened to respecting our friend?"

"For goodness sake, just let me play the dang Gameboy," I whispered dangerously. Kaylie smiled mockingly and let me play.

Round Two was definitely more interesting. This was when the spelling actually began to take place. Kaylie, Hannah, Mr. Cannon, Mrs. Cannon and I positively exploded when Eric was called up. A judge had to turn around and shush us. Eric, who had been almost white before, turned as red as a traffic light in split seconds. Instead of cheering then, we all just beamed at him with grins on our faces. I imagined from stage it looked kind of creepy. Nonetheless, Eric spelled "maintenance" correctly.

The judges all met before round three; some of the people up there would have to be eliminated based on how they did in rounds one and two. I prayed and hoped for Eric to make it; I knew that he would be crushed if he didn't.

Each person was called up one by one. The ones left in the seats at the end were the eliminated ones. I crossed my fingers as they came out, then reached over and crossed Hannah's and Kaylie's fingers for them.

The names were randomized, so you never knew who was going to be called up. They had called over half the people up and still Eric was still in his seat. He looked at the judges, anxious and terrified.

Yeardley Harshakimilinitly was called up, and Kaylie said "Oh, come on!" a little too loudly. Everyone gave us angry stares again.

There were fifteen people left in the seats, Eric among them. Only five more were to be called up.

Thomas G. Nuts, Carl Creips, and Giovanni Mario Florentine were all called up. Only two more.

"Eric Antonio Cannon," the dowdy woman judge called. You could hear Eric's sigh of relief all the way in the audience. He had made the cut; I felt like cheering again, but I knew that would only embarrass Eric further.

Round three was one where if you got it wrong, you were out. No questions asked, you were outta there. My mind was screaming GO ERIC GO, I hoped that on some level of telecommunication he could possibly hear me.

Maybe he did hear me, and maybe he didn't, but he made it through with the word "deliquesce." What really made me think that he heard me was the fact that he made it all the way through Rounds four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, and twelve without a single glitch, spelling words that I had no clue even existed. But luckily Eric at least knew them, or was just shockingly good at spelling gibberish words.

Round Thirteen made me worry. Eric was one of only five kids left to go on. This included Mr. Yeardley Harshakimilinitly, whom for some reason Kaylie had come to strongly dislike. Maybe it was because she laughed at his name every time and people got mad at her for it.

Yeardley was the first to go up. He was sweating profusely, and his brown eyes darted from side to side as if looking for an exit. For a kid with darker skin, he was quite pale, and his black hair stuck to his head due to how much sweating he was doing. He looked as if he was about to make a run offstage and into the streets of Washington. Kaylie watched him intensely, as if daring him to mess up with her eyes.

Yeardley locked eyes with Kaylie and looked extremely scared. He then looked up into the lights like he was trying to blind himself so that he wouldn't have to look at the intense little redhead in the crowd.

"Deschampsia," the dowdy woman judge announced. They had told us her name early, but I had chosen to forget it.

Yeardley sweated some more and squinted at the lights. Then he began to spell: "D-E-C-H-A-M-P-S-I-A?" He ended it like a question.

"That is," the dowdy woman took a long pause for excitement (or maybe just to torture Yeardley), "incorrect."

Yeardly fainted onstage. Paramedics rushed out and dragged him offstage in a stretcher. Kaylie's mouth dropped wide open. She turned to me. "Did I do that?" she asked.

"Um…" I responded.

"I did, didn't I?" she said. Then she stood up and the middle of the hall and yelled after the stretcher, "Sorry, Yeardley!"

"Miss, for goodness sake, could you please BE QUIET!" The dowdy woman was on her feet too and yelling at Kaylie. "If you yell out one more time or continue to intimidate my spelling contestants, I will have you personally THROWN OUT!"

The entire audience was now staring at us.

"I am very sorry," Kaylie said. "I'll- I'll try to keep it down." And with her remaining dignity, she sat.

Eric walked up. He was the next to go; he seemed very confident before, but now I think he was slightly shaken because of Yeardley's predicament. The crowd was completely silent as he walked up to the microphone. You could hear the click of his shoes on the stage as he took each step. He stared at the microphone right in front of his nose, so his eyes almost crossed. I held my breath.

"Phreatophyte," the dowdy woman said.

Eric looked determined again. "Phreatophyte," he repeated. "P-H-R-E-A-T-O-P-H-Y-T-E. Phreatophyte," he ended defiantly.

"Correct," the woman said, and I think I might even have seen a smile on her face. Or maybe it was just a flicker of light in her many wrinkles.

Eric grinned from ear to ear as he walked back to his seat. I hardly ever saw him so happy, and it made all of us smile too.

That round Georgia Jenson got out too. Now it was just Eric, number 86 (Bert Wellford), and number 47 (Lisa Drifford). One of them would end up the spelling champion.

We moved on to Round Fourteen. It was Eric's turn. He walked up, his shoes squeaking on the wood. I could have sworn I saw his legs shake a little bit, but you wouldn't know it as he stood tall and straight in front of the microphone. He looked down at the panel of judges.

"Pneumothorax," the dowdy woman said.

Eric took a long shuddering breath. "Pneumothorax," he repeated, more to himself than the judges or the crowd.

"N-E-U-M-O," he started, then thought for a moment. "T-H-O-R-A-X."

The dowdy woman breathed in and out. "I'm sorry," she said. "That is incorrect."

"NO!" Kaylie screamed from her seat. I felt like kicking her, but I was too shocked to do or say anything.

Onstage, Eric still stood by the microphone, wearing his "Number Thirty-Two" around his neck. He showed no reaction whatsoever to having gotten out. Things began popping into my head- he's going to have a fit, he's going to panic, he's going to faint like Yeardley. But what I didn't expect was for him to smile.

Yes, he was completely wrong, and he just grinned into the crowd and walked offstage. Just before he passed behind the curtains, he turned back to our little section of the crowd, looked at Kaylie and I, and waved. Yes, he waved at us. The boy who nearly threw up this morning just at the thought of coming here was smiling and waving at us onstage. I couldn't believe it.

Security was standing at the end of our aisle, looking right at Kaylie.

"Miss," a large man in a blue uniform with dark hair said to Kaylie, "I'm afraid we're going to have to ask you to come with us."

"Okay," she said quietly. The people that had gotten mad at her for talking now, turned around, smiled, and laughed as we left.

Mr. Cannon, Mrs. Cannon, Hannah and I followed Kaylie out. We were led into the lobby of the convention center.

"Mommy," Hannah said. "Let's go see Eric." She stared up at her mother with puppy-dog eyes, her trademark.

"I'm sorry, hija," Mrs. Cannon responded.

Both of the large security guards looked at poor innocent little Hannah. "I-I suppose we might be able to take you backstage…" the one said.

"As long as this one-" the dark-haired security guard pointed to Kaylie- "doesn't cause any more trouble."

Kaylie mimed zipping her mouth shut and throwing away the key.

"Alright then," the one said.

We were led backstage quietly. I seriously doubted the dowdy woman would approve of such behavior on behalf of the guards, but they just couldn't seem to resist Hannah's innocent charm. Mrs. Cannon was now holding Hannah.

"Good job," Mrs. Cannon whispered in Hannah's ear; Hannah smiled mischievously.

A huge group of spellers was backstage, all congratulating each other or trying to calm down with bottles of ice water. After searching through the crowd, Hannah was the first one to see Eric.

"Eric!" she screamed, wriggling free of her mother's arms and dashing over to her brother. Eric, still smiling, knelt down and scooped her up as she ran to him.

"Hey, little sister," he said to her. He squeezed her tightly and put her down.

Eric's parents beamed at him and hugged him. "Good job," his father said to him, and "You were the best up there," from his mother.

"Don't forget about us!" Kaylie said. She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.

"How could I forget about you, Kaylie?" Eric said. "You were the loudest one in the audience. I'm surprised they didn't throw you out sooner than they did."

"Oh, shut up," she said, still smiling.

Eric then finally turned to me. He gave me the same smile he did when he waved, and I hugged him.

"I told you that you could do it better than everyone else," I whispered in his ear.

"I was only that good," he whispered, "because I had your voice telling me that I could do it the entire time."

I didn't know what to say… to think that I was partly responsible for Eric getting so far… My mouth couldn't form words, so I just hugged him tighter. He returned it as well.

Later on, we took Eric out to dinner for his success. That same round Eric had gotten out, Lisa Drifford got out on some word I couldn't pronounce. Bert Wellford was crowned spelling king. We didn't stay for the rest of the ceremony, though; Mr. and Mrs. Cannon treated Eric to go wherever he wanted, so we all went to the Museum of Natural History. It actually wasn't boring; Kaylie really enjoyed the gigantic elephant in the middle of the atrium, and I liked seeing the Hope Diamond. Eric seemed to just enjoy explaining all of the exhibits to us.

After coming back from the museum, Eric decided that we should all go out to eat at a fancy-looking restaurant he had seen earlier; personally, I think that Eric just enjoyed feeling like he was fancy and sophisticated. Which I guess he was, when compared to Kaylie and I, but really, that wasn't saying much at all.

It wasn't that I didn't enjoy fine dining, it was that I hated getting dressed up for it. I hated putting on makeup and dresses that I was only going to drop food on anyway. Kaylie, on the other hand, used any excuse to get dressed up for anything; Halloween was her favorite holiday, and even when she was just going out to dinner, she took it very seriously.

Kaylie set a Chinese theme for her outfit that night. I had never stopped to ask Kaylie why she set themes for her clothes; it was something that had just become commonplace to me. Tonight she chose a traditional Chinese red dress with a high collar.Meanwhile, I rooted through my bag for something to wear.

"We're going two blocks down the road Kaylie, not to China," I said as she admired her handiwork of an outfit.

"I know," she said, "but I felt like being foreign tonight. Should I wear my hair up or down?"

I began to panic as I couldn't find anything in my bag. "Whatever, Kaylie, I've got other issues," I said, not bothering to look up from my search in my bag. Kaylie just shook her head and took her outfit and toiletries bag into the bathroom.

I continued to dig through my bag like my life depended on it. But suddenly my hand came upon something that I didn't remember packing; a piece of paper. I pulled it out. It was a piece of notebook paper, messily folded into thirds. My name was scrawled on the front in handwriting I didn't recognize. I opened it, and read what was inside:

'Ellie- I thought I would drop you note instead of calling or showing up in person. That would only draw attention to us. I heard you were going on vacation- don't ask me how, I have my sources. And I thought to remind you: BE CAREFUL. You are special, Ellie, and someone may be after you. They probably know where you are right now, and may be watching you. Please, please, please be on your guard. I know you may not feel in any danger now, but keep an eye out. I want you to be happy, Ellie, but be cautious. BE CAREFUL. Danni.'

I sagged under the weight the note had dropped on me. What was wrong? Why would Danni bother to tell me now, of all times, to be careful? Was the threat following me, was it getting stronger, was it now threatening Danni, too? I found myself slightly short of breath, and completely deaf to everything around me. It felt like the earth was spinning a thousand miles per hour beneath me.

"Ellie, are you okay?" I heard Kaylie's voice from very far away, as if I was in the valley and she was on top of a mountain. Her words echoed for a moment in my head.

"I-I-Dan-" I wasn't sure how to talk. "I found this," I finished.

Kaylie took the note out of my hand and read it while I stared at the floor. When she finished, Kaylie's face looked as confused as I felt.

"Wh-Wh-" she began, looking from me to the note to back again. "What's going on?"

I looked at Kaylie's deep brown eyes. They were filled with confusion and fear, and I felt bad for bringing that upon her. She looked so lovely in her red dress, with her face all made up and her hair straightened and pulled back into a bun. Maybe I should have just told her later; but there was no use in regrets now. I decided to answer her question.

"I don't know," I responded. Kaylie sank down onto the bed next to me. I turned to her.

"I'm scared, Ellie," she said to me.

"Yeah," I answered. "Me too."

Kaylie and I decided that it was best not to tell Eric until later; it was his big day and he deserved to have at least a few more hours of fun. Besides, if all three of us were upset on such a happy day, Eric's parents would suspect something and ask questions that I really couldn't answer. I kept the note in my back pocket, though; for some reason I felt like leaving it in my room would invite trouble. Even though I chose to bring it, it felt like a huge reminder of how scared I was of what Danni was trying to tell me, what I didn't know. Just days ago, I had felt completely safe. I was half ghost, learning how to use my powers, but still, I was happy to be me. Now I realized that I had been skipping through the minefield that entire time, and had just been lucky enough not to step in the wrong place.

I sat between Kaylie and Eric at the round table we were seated at. I barely looked at the menu or spoke; it was lucky I really wasn't required to, though, because Eric was busy giving us a blow by blow account of the spelling bee. The waiter came around, and I just ordered everything that Kaylie got.

In the middle of dinner, Hannah spilled her entire plate of spaghetti on her lap and had to be taken to the bathroom by her mom to clean up. Mr. Cannon was talking to Kaylie about the junior CIA- Kaylie was much more persistent that I was and was actually getting information. I tapped Eric on the shoulder.

"What?" he said.

I shushed him quickly. "I found this in my bag earlier," I whispered, handing him the note under the table. I watched as his eyes scanned back and forth along the page.

"What does this mean?" Eric whispered, slightly shaken.

"It means something's wrong," I responded.

The next night, Mr. and Mrs. Cannon took Hannah out to see some more of Washington so that Eric could have a night with his friends. It was our last day here, and we had spent all day sightseeing. I hadn't gotten much of a chance to enjoy anything, though. Every time we turned a corner, my heart raced. All day as we looked at exhibits, Danni's note was in the back of my mind. It was like a parasite I just couldn't get rid of. I did learn to calm myself slightly, though. As we all sat together on Eric's bed, eating chocolate, and discussing what the note could possibly mean, I was no longer broken down- I was merely a little on edge.

"I think Darius is back," Kaylie mumbled through a mouthful of M&M's. Eric nodded.

"Maybe," I said, studying the tacky pattern on the bedspread. "But somehow I don't think that's it. No, I think it's more connected to what my dad said before the funeral. Someone killing off the halfas- he said that whatever it was might come after me. I can't see Darius scaring Danni that much- he's not much older than us."

"Size and age aren't that great of a measure, Ellie," Eric said. "I mean, look at Hannah. She's not even four foot and is only five years old, but she can pack a whallop like you wouldn't believe. I think Darius has more influence than you think."

"Maybe he scares Danni, but it's not like we can be sure of that," I said, taking a handful of chocolate. "And I'm certainly not saying that Darius doesn't have influence. I'm just saying that I don't think he's the source of out problems this time."

Kaylie yawned. She was stretched out like a cat in her pajamas, with her hair let down (it reached all the way down her back when straightened- I had never realized how long it was) on the bed. She looked about to fall asleep.

"Well," she said. "I think that topic's pretty much worn out for tonight," she continued. "All that sightseeing wore me out. Add in all this ghost stuff and- I'm surprised I haven't fallen asleep already. Night, Ellie- Eric." Kaylie walked through the adjoined doorways and shut our door.

"So what do you think?" I turned to Eric and asked. I couldn't seem to get the subject off my mind.

"I think," Eric began, then paused to take eat another piece of chocolate, "that you need to relax, and get ghosts off of your mind."

I smiled. "So what are you suggesting I do?" I asked.

"Come here," Eric said. He took my hand and led me over to the window, pulling open the curtains. "When I booked a hotel room in the city, you didn't think I picked it for the location, did you? Look at the view we've got…"

You could see nearly all of Washington from our room. The Capitol building was amazingly close; I felt like I could reach out and touch it. I could also see many of the museums we had been in earlier, up and down The Mall. The night sky dazzled with stars and you could see much of the architecture for miles. Each window glowed with soft light, outlining the shape of the building. A few stray people wandered up and down the street, and I'm sure there was still many more still at the mall. It was still very early evening, only a little past dinnertime (trust Kaylie to go to bed at a weird time), and although there were probably many, many people still out, I felt like Eric and I were the only two people in Washington.

"How come we didn't see this before?" I asked.

"You didn't look," Eric said. "If you look hard enough, you'll always find something you didn't know was there."

I looked back out across the cityscape; when I had arrived in Washington, I had thought it was dull. But now, as I looked at it, it was one of the most fascinating sights I ever saw, and probably ever would see. Sometimes you can find the most amazing things in the strangest places; I looked at Eric and thought about that. I realized that I should have discovered that fact so much earlier. There was certainly something about Eric that I didn't know was there- until I had looked, of course.

"It's really nice, isn't it?" Eric said. "Someday I want to live in the city. Have a big sky rise apartment, with big windows, so that I can just look at the view all night long."

"Could I live there with you?" I laughed. "That sounds better than any dream I ever had of my future."

"Of course you can live there," Eric agreed. "Wouldn't be home without you there to bug me."

"Oh, you be quiet," I said, laughing. Eric smiled back at me. We sighed, and looked at each other.

I hadn't realized that Eric had never let go of my hand, until in that moment he squeezed it. I squeezed back. With his spare hand, Eric reached up and brushed my hair back from my face. I was suddenly reminded of the winter ball.

"Fancy crepe paper has nothing on this," I repeated, remembering that view from the back of the school and what I had said.

Eric smiled. "No," he said. "It doesn't."

Eric's eyes were the same perfect green. A warm breeze blew slightly through the window, mimicking how I felt inside. Eric let go of my hand and put his arm loosely around me, and I did the same to him. We stood looking out at the view.

"Ellie," Eric began. He looked at me.

"Yeah," I responded, looking up at him. I didn't realize how much taller he was than me now.

Eric never finished what he was going to say; instead, he leaned down and kissed me.

A million things ran through my mind as fireworks exploded. It was like the New Year, after the countdown when the fireworks went off, and your mind floods with everything that had happened that year. I had been counting down to this moment almost since I had met Eric, and now that the countdown had finally stopped and the fireworks had been released, my mind flooded with everything I had done with Eric in a matter of seconds.

Suddenly, my hand was reaching through that bookcase again, hitting him in the face, and I was helping him to the nurses office… we were at my house, playing chess on the kitchen table, the first time he had come over… he was standing with me in the dark broom closet… I was coming down the stairs and looking into his green eyes… we were dancing in the back of the school… he was giving me my Christmas present… I was showing him and Kaylie my powers in the backyard… we were talking on AIM on the way to Wisconsin… we were getting a new cell phone… we were laughing on the way back from the cell phone store… he was helping me train… we were on the plane to Washington… he was onstage, we were hugging backstage, he was explaining the exhibits to us at the Museum of Natural History… I was tapping him on the shoulder at the restaurant, handing him the note… the note…

The idea of the note stuck in my head. What was I doing? I couldn't start something with Eric when it appeared like we were all in danger… what if something happened to me? Or worse, what if something happened to him, and it was all my fault? I wouldn't be able to live with myself.

I pulled away slightly from Eric, rested my head momentarily, and looked up into his confused green eyes.

"What is it?" he asked me.

"It's… nothing," I said, but it didn't even sound convincing to me.

Eric, somehow, had the power to see right through me. "You need to forget about that note, Ellie," he said, brushing back my hair again. He leaned in again.

"I can't forget it, Eric," I said softly, not responding to him leaning toward me.

"Of course you can," he said nicely, squeezing me loosely.

Something rose up inside me, boiling hot, that somehow made me want to make Eric understand that I couldn't just let things go. "No, I can't!" I said loudly, pulling away from him.

Eric looked hurt, but slightly angry, too. "Ellie, you need to learn to let go of this ghost stuff," he said sternly. "You need to realize that it's only one part of your life."

I was only fueled further. "How could you say that?" I was nearly screaming now. I hardly cared who might be listening, whether it be the old couple next door or Darius or whoever else. I had to make Eric understand. "This isn't something that we can just brush off whenever we want Eric, this is real- we could be in danger-"

"You and this stupid note!" Eric yelled back. "You get one note and you freak out, it doesn't even say anything! Meanwhile, you completely ignore everything- you're completely oblivious, Ellie! You have no clue as to what other people are doing, or how they're feeling-"

"You're one to talk about feelings!" I retorted. "You had what, like a year to tell me you liked me? You had almost a year, Eric! What were you doing, drawing up a master plan? It's not that hard!"

"You didn't even try to tell me you liked me! You completely brushed it off after the Winter Ball-" I didn't even bother to let him finish.

"Don't you dare try to pin this on me, Eric Cannon," I said, deathly quiet. "You had all the time in the world, and you just didn't bother. You knew I had something else to worry about, and you did _nothing_."

"You always have something else to worry about," Eric responded in the same tone. "You're always about ghosts this, and danger here, and this discovery and that- Kaylie and I are just along for the ride."

"Don't you dare drag Kaylie into this!" I screamed at the top of my lungs; I was shocked no one had come to check on us yet. Eric and I were now standing five feet apart, locked in a shouting match; I was now pink in the face, and Eric's eyes had twisted and contorted into a death stare; both of our fists were clenched tightly, and I could feel my fingernails digging into the palm of my hand; our knuckles were white. We continued shouting.

"I'll drag whoever I want into this!" Eric yelled, glaring me in the face. "I'll do whatever I want now, because we always do it your way! We always have to do everything you say, and it's always something to do with ghosts! I'm sick of it, Ellie! I'm sick of all the lies and the secrets and all this other crap! I'm just plain sick of it!"

"So you're sick of me, Eric?" I questioned, staring him down, no longer blinking. "You don't even trust me anymore! You don't even listen to what I'm trying to tell you! So if you're sick of me, then I'll just leave! I'll just leave you to your stupid little thoughts, and I'll make it on my own, because I'm sick of you, too!"

"FINE!" he yelled back. "Leave! I don't even want you in here anymore! I don't want you as my friend, I don't want you as my girlfriend, I don't want you as anything anymore! We're over, Ellie. You had your chance, and you blew it the minute you started caring about yourself more than your friends! Don't come crying to me when you can't figure out anything on your own!"

"That'll be the day!" I screamed, and opened the adjoining door. "I never want your opinion again! You're dead to me, Eric Cannon!" I slammed the door shut before he could say anything back.

Kaylie and I's room was dark. Kaylie was snoring; the loudness of the snoring must've blocked out any sort of noise from the other room, along with the soundproof walls. All of the blood now came rushing to my face, and I felt very uneasy. Slowly, unsteadily, I made my way to our bathroom.

A strange girl looked back at me in the mirror. Her face was red and worried looking, she was slouched over the sink, her normal dazzling blue eyes were all of a sudden dull and murky. Her body shook with tremors and chills. I looked into my reflection, into my own glassy eyes, and realized that Eric was right: somewhere along the line, I had changed.

My stomach felt as if it had been beaten with a baseball bat. It lurched again and again; what had I done? I had just lost one of the only best friends I had ever had, and truth be told, I loved Eric too. I had never loved any guy before, but somehow, I felt as if I had gotten it right this time. When I imagined my future, somehow, he was always in it, and we were married and happy. I thought of the apartment with the big windows, and imagined little dark-haired green-eyed children running around, with skyscrapers in the background. In a matter of minutes that picture had come crushing down on top of me. I had lost Eric; my stomach lurched again.

I kneeled down by the toilet and nearly threw up; how could I lose him? How could I be so stupid that I only cared about myself?

I couldn't cry. There are some occasions that things are just so awful that you simply can't cry because it just isn't enough, and this was one of them. Crying let everything out, but there was a huge black hole inside of me that was simply taking everything in, eating away at me. Just swallow me up, I thought. I just don't care anymore.

After about a half an hour kneeling by the toilet, watching the still water inside but not really seeing it, I meandered over to my bed and lay down. I pulled my knees up to my chest; feeling curled up made me feel smaller, like what I had done was smaller. I never should have said anything; I was selfish and stupid and now I couldn't take it back.

It was still early evening. I didn't even dare look out to the window and remember the view that was there. Moments ago Eric and I were the only two people in Washington; now it was just me, curled up in the dark hotel room so far from home. I let all thought float from my head, listening to the sounds of the hotel. Under the adjoining door was dark; somewhere in there, Eric was in the dark too.

I listened carefully. From somewhere behind the headboard, there was a soft, sad snuffling noise. I listened closer, and realized it was sobbing. Someone was now sobbing uncontrollably in Eric's room. Eric was crying, as I lay curled up on my bed. It grew louder and louder, completely filling the room. Eric was now probably having an asthma attack, but it didn't seem like he cared. Then, after a deep breath, it stopped and was replaced with the sound of heavy breathing; he had fallen asleep.

Of course Eric was the one to cry: he was the one who could let it all go, just let everything wash over him; I was the secretive, lying one who did nothing and just let it swallow her up.

A/N: Please remember that I am very, very sorry. This is a story where bad things need to happen to good characters in order to help them; please just trust me, and keep reading. I love all of your comments. Huge events are coming up within the next few chapters.


	35. The Road Home

Chapter Thirty-Five

The Road Home

I woke up to someone laying a blanket on top of me. I blinked several times to clear my vision only to see a certain redhead at the end of my bed with a blanket wrapped around her. She had placed my blankets on top of me; I had fallen asleep on top of the covers and was now very cold.

Kaylie rounded my bed and laid down on the other side of the bed. I turned over to look at her.

"Good morning," I mumbled, still remembering the previous night. My head hurt from being so absolutely stupid.

"Not so much," she responded. Kaylie's face was solemn. I hardly ever saw her without a smile on her face.

"What's wrong?" I asked. I knew what was wrong with me, but why was Kaylie sad?

"I heard you last night," she said thickly. "I heard you and Eric fighting. I got up to watch TV and heard yelling, so I listened through the door. I heard almost the whole thing. I'm so sorry, Ellie."

"You don't have to be sorry-" I said, nearly crying now.

"Yes I do," she whispered.

"No, you don't," I said forcefully. I didn't want to remember last night at all anymore. I desperately wished it had been no more than a bad dream.

"You don't understand!" Kaylie said, now beginning to cry. "It's all my fault!"

"Kaylie, you can't blame yourself for something Eric and I did," I said.

"But it was my idea! It was all my idea! I was the one who told Eric to do it," she sobbed, "I was the one who him to go for it with you. When we went to Arlington Cemetery yesterday, I pulled him aside and told him that you liked him. I told him that I knew he liked you too, and to just cut to the point and go for it because he might as well be the first one to go. I told him that you wanted to be with him. And now that he did it, I was wrong, and you started fighting, and now you're never going to be friends again!" Kaylie stopped, completely overwhelmed with sobbing. Her small frame shook with each breath, and her face was red under all her freckles. Tears streamed down her face onto the hotel bedding.

I began to sniffle too. This was all my fault and Kaylie was beating herself up because she thought it was all her fault. I sat up and looked at the sobbing form of my best friend. I put my hand on her shoulder.

"Kaylie, Kaylie." I said her name until she turned her tear-stained face up to look at me. "Look at me. It's not your fault."

Kaylie continued to look at me with confused, guilty eyes.

"It's- my fault," I admitted. The room was quiet; Kaylie had stopped sobbing and had sat up to look at me. "You couldn't have known what was going to happen. It's not your fault, Kaylie. It's my fault for being… stupid. And selfish. So don't blame yourself, because this is between Eric and me."

I avoided saying if Eric and I were going to get back together again, and Kaylie noticed. Her eyes were still sad, as if she had lost something she loved. And in a way, she had- she had lost the closeness of her two best friends. Now it was her and Ellie, and her and Eric. No more were Kaylie and Ellie and Eric.

Kaylie reached out and hugged me. At least I still had one friend left.

Mr. and Mrs. Cannon came and got us to leave around noon. Not a word was spoken on the way to the airport or in the terminal. I didn't even bother looking into Eric's face, and he didn't bother looking at me. I stared at my shoes the entire time (I noticed a lot of pennies on the ground, but was too angry and sad to pick them up). Eric buried his nose in The Innocent Man. I had never known Eric to be very interested in crime novels. But I felt like now I didn't even know him at all anymore, even though he looked like the exact same Eric I had accidentally punched in the library.

I decided to sit right near the boarding entrance, several seats down from Eric. Every once and awhile I looked up at him. Each time he buried his face further into his book as if trying to fall into the book.

I stared at the flooring, gray with speckles of red and white, and pulled my knees up to my chest again, trying to get comfortable in the plastic seat. I remembered pulling away as the movers moved in Aunt Jazz and the triplets, and joking with my dad. Suddenly I became horribly homesick. I wished I was home with my mom, cutting up fruit in the kitchen and watering her plants. I wished I was curled up next to my dad on the couch watching the eleven o'clock news even though I was supposed to be in bed. I wished to hear Aunt Jazz's high heals click in the hallway, or see Danielle in the bathroom applying her makeup with her mouth wide open. I missed watching Entertainment Tonight with Dylan, and most of all, I missed Deyton, the one person I could confide about ghosts to in the house. All of them seemed so far away from me right now, and it became all I could think about to get back to the comfort of home.

I barely noticed when we started to board. Slowly, I sat up, took my carry-on, and got on the plane without even a glance back at Washington. This place now had a twinge of anger and guilt attached to it, and I never wanted to come back again.

I watched everyone's feet as I boarded, not bothering to look up at faces. I shuffled to this side and that, but I didn't really care too much. One person nearly dropped their luggage on my head, but I merely ducked and continued walking without listening to the apology. Apologies are useless.

Only when I got back to my seat and looked at my ticket did I realize that my seat was the one next to Eric. He shot me a horrible look, as if daring me to sit next to him. I shot my own look back. If I took that seat, our fighting would probably bring the plane down. I instead turned to Hannah.

"Hey, Hannah," I said. "You want to switch seats with me? Sit next to Eric?"

She glanced past me at Eric, who was watching the runway intently. She seemed to sense the situation. She merely shrugged her shoulders and responded, "Okay," taking my ticket and sitting next to her older brother.

I sat down in Hannah's aisle seat next to Kaylie. She looked at me, then past at Eric.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked.

I shook my head. "No," I said.

"Okay," Kaylie said. She took her Nintendo DS out of her bag and began to play, knowing that I would rather be alone.

I looked back over at Eric. He had pulled Hannah over onto his lap, and they were looking out onto the runway together. Eric rested his head on his sister's, and turned to look at me, then quickly looked back. If absolutely nothing else, he was a good brother.

The plane ride seemed to last for hours. I squirmed in my seat and stared out the window and at people on the plane. I watched the young couple in the seats in front of Kaylie and I, almost hating them for being so happy together, and the hard-faced woman in a suit typing rapidly on her Blackberry. To me, she looked very lonely. I looked at her closely; that was my future if I kept picking off the people who loved me like I was. Lonely, no one to talk to, nothing personal, nothing connecting me to the outside world except a Blackberry full of numbers for work. It was a sad future, but it was a future all the same.

I couldn't get that sad woman and that sad future out of my mind. On the way out of the plane, she spilled the contents of her purse and I leaned down to pick them up: a blackberry, a wallet with no pictures, a pen, a pad of paper. Nothing that wasn't strictly business.

The ride home was no better. In fact, it was worse. I had to sit near Eric now. All we did was shoot each other hard looks all the way home, with Kaylie in the middle, not even daring to play her Nintendo DS. She merely clasped her hands and stared at them. At points, she looked about to cry or yell at us or something. But no sound came out each time she opened her mouth, and the ride was continued in silence.

I breathed a sigh of relief as the Cannon's van drove off. I watched it go, my bag slung across my shoulder. Hannah gave me a small wave as they drove off, but I didn't bother to return in. I just watched with cold hard eyes until they were obscured by the pine trees and the swerving road.

"I'm home," I called softly in barely more than a whisper to the house as I walked through the door. I dropped my bag and took off my jacket. The house was silent. No footsteps sounded upstairs, and no one was talking in the kitchen. The only sound was the cackle of the TV in the family room. I headed for the noise.

My dad was sitting on the couch, watching the evening news. "Welcome home, Ellie," he said, turning briefly away from the image of Charlie Gibson on the screen to greet me.

"Where is everyone?" I asked. Usually one of the triplets was creating some kind of fuss in the house at this hour, or my mom or Aunt Jazz was making dinner. It was strange to hear my own thoughts in this house.

"They went out to the mall," my dad said. "Deyton needed new wheels for his skateboard, and Dylan was saying something about a big sale. Your mom and Aunt Jazz broke the electric mixer, too, so they needed to get a new one."

"Why didn't you go?" I still hadn't moved from my spot in the doorway.

"I wanted to see that you got home safely," he said kindly. I smiled slightly, waiting for him to tell the truth. "Well, that, and I didn't really want to be locked up with all of them in a car for two hours," he continued honestly. "How was your trip?"

I looked down at my feet and didn't respond. Yes, dad, I had the worst time of my life. I shouldn't even have gone. I wasted all the money you spent and had a crappy time, and lost one of my best friends. Thanks for asking.

Instead of voicing my thoughts, I just wandered over and sat down on the couch next to my dad. I curled up my legs and pressed my head to his shoulder. It was even better than saying what I thought; my dad automatically understood. He put a hand on my head and felt my hair.

I was instantly taken back to our tiny apartment in Amity Park, when I was seven. My mom used to work late- nearly from the time I woke up to the time I went to bed- so my dad would take care of me. It was just after he had been fired from his job working as a clerk in an office the next town over, so my mom had to work enough to keep the apartment, which was a lot. I had come home from a birthday party for the girl who lived in the apartment below ours. It had been the worst party I have ever gone to, up to this day. I had been ignored the entire party, left to just take small bites of the snacks and stand shyly in the corner. All of the people were invited to play hide and seek, so I hid in the very obvious place of the coat closet. No one ever bothered to come get me. I heard them start opening presents, and finally came out. I told the girl's mom I wasn't feeling well, and dashed home.

My dad was watching the nightly news when I got home, very shaken. I was crying slightly. When my dad saw me, he got up without a word and picked me up. He brought me to the couch and sat me on his lap. I leaned my head on his shoulder and he put his hand on my head. Together, we watched the nightly news until I feel asleep. I don't even remember what was on the news that night, just how safe I felt when I was with my dad.

I looked up at my dad again. He was gazing at the news, staying calm, letting me readjust. After awhile he turned to me.

"Ellie, did I ever tell you about the time I fought with your mom in high school?" he asked. I shook my head. I had never thought of my parents fighting. Everything was always resolved within five minutes at our house; that was one of the things I loved about my parents. I couldn't picture them ever fighting.

"No, you didn't," I whispered.

"We were freshman in high school," he said to me. "Same age as you are now. We weren't even together back then, she was just one of my best friends along with Uncle Tucker. Well, I accused her of something she didn't do. Something… that I don't even think she could have done, but I accused her anyway. She was just trying to help me. And then," he paused and sighed, "and then I she said she wished she had never met me. I was so mad that I didn't care, and we just ignored each other. I forgot about her. It was the worst thing. Eventually, we got over it, but… I hated fighting with her, Ellie."

I nodded gently. "I hate… fighting, too," I said. I didn't say Eric's name, but I think he knew.

"Sometimes all you have to do is give it time," my dad said. "You can't let things go forever, but sometimes giving yourself enough time to just look at things can make all the difference."

"But what do you do with all that time?" I asked.

"You… do whatever feels right," my dad said. "You watch TV, you read, you work. Whatever it takes."

"That's just so hard to do," I whispered.

"I know it is, Lilly, I know it is," my dad said, holding me now like I was little again. He even used my old name. No one had ever called me Lilly except my parents, and not since I was in preschool. I had been called Ellie for as long as I could remember.

"I love you, Daddy," I whispered.

"I love you, too, Ellie," he responded.

I hugged my dad and kissed him on the cheek. He was exactly the same as when I was little; he felt the same, he looked the same, and he smelled the same. Even if everything was changing, he never would. There may have been so much I didn't know about him, but still, he was my dad, and I loved him more than ever.

I got up. "Thank you, Daddy," I said.

"For what?" he responded. I smiled, and walked away.

I opened the basement door, and slowly walked down the stairs. Amazingly, they didn't creak. Standing in the middle of that basement, the world seemed quiet. It was like fighting and crying and misery didn't exist; nothing but silence.

I closed my eyes and transformed myself into my ghost form. I could now do it without closing my eyes, but I had to close and open them again to make sure everything was as quiet as it seemed.

All the world was quiet. It was as if I was the only one who existed.

Slowly, I raised my hand, and fired a blast at the mattress in the corner. I held up the other hand, and fired again. All of a sudden, I was rapidly firing, beating the mattress to pulp. My breath quickened, and I concentrated on nothing other than beating that piece of furniture.

Some read. Some watch TV. I worked.

A/N: Sorry that took awhile! I've been having exams at school and it's just been a nightmare. The next chapter does skip some time (again) and Eric will be away for several chapters now (sorry!). There will be several time skips over the next ten chapters (yes, only ten more updates!) because I need to get to the climax. BTW, the next chapter is called "Like Clockwork." You can speculate all you want on that one!

Til next update,

Rachel


	36. Like Clockwork

Chapter Thirty-Six

Like Clockwork

The next few weeks, for me at least, were filled with nothing but work. I spent hours on end in the basement refining my skills, timing myself down to the millisecond to beat my previous scores. I did every single bit of extra credit for school and all of my homework, and I even read ahead in several of the chapters. I researched ghost-hunting non-stop on the school computers in the library, often staying until after the late buses left so that my dad had to come get me. I told him I had a project to do. This, in a way, was the truth- I was working on myself.

Deyton and Kaylie did help a little bit. They helped me time, they helped me study, and they forced me to go to bed when it was midnight and I was still up studying Spanish vocabulary. Most of all, I think they enjoyed being together all the time. Deyton now ate lunch with us instead of Eric (who took refuge with the rest of the chess club on the other side of the cafeteria) and he spent most of the time with Kaylie and I when we were watching TV or playing games. He even bought a Nintendo DS so that he could pictochat with Kaylie when I was rambling about ghosts.

And yet, it was the end of April and I still had not touched the portal. I knew it had something to do with everything, and yet I couldn't put my finger on it. To tell the truth, I was afraid of it. What if I went in and never came out? Or if my parents caught me going in or coming out? Or what if it ate ghosts or something? I couldn't go in it without considering these things. So here I was, in the prime of Saturday, with a lovely spring day outside (just cool enough to not make you break a sweat, but warm enough to go without a jacket) and I was up in the attic, searching through musty old boxes.

It was the box labeled "Ghost Crap", where I had gotten my information before. I figured that if I backtracked, maybe I would find something I hadn't seen before. The sun filtered through the grimy dormer window panes, illuminating all the dust particles in the air. The treetops reached towards the sky just outside, and the sound of Kaylie and Deyton's voices drifted up toward me.

I opened up the old window. It must not have been opened for a hundred years or so. The dust poured into my nose, making me cough and sneeze in a fit. Finally, after my eyes stopped watering and my throat stopped tickling, I peered down at the lawn.

I almost laughed out loud. There were Kaylie and Deyton, out on the winding driveway. Deyton was trying to teach Kaylie how to skateboard. She was standing on top of the board, her ankles wobbling back and forth as she tried to stabilize herself. She clutched Deyton's shoulders for dear life, and he held on to her around the waist.

"Don't let me go!" she laughed.

"Like I ever could do that," he responded.

"I bet you would," Kaylie joked. "I'm sure you would just love to see me fall on my butt."

"I can't believe you could say such a thing!" Deyton said. "I couldn't do that to you!"

"Sure…" she said, not believing it.

"Fine, if you don't trust me, maybe I will just let you go." Deyton took his hands off of Kaylie, who shook dangerously before completely falling into Deyton, grabbing him around the neck. He stumbled backwards several steps, but gained his hold on Kaylie. The board had rolled away.

"I knew you would let go," she said.

"Well, I had to let you go sometime," he said. "Maybe that was just a little too soon."

"You think?" Kaylie said sarcastically. "At least you caught me, though."

"Kaylie," Deyton said, looking into her eyes, "I'll always catch you." He still had her in midair. Kaylie paused, then leaned over and kissed him gently on the cheek.

"I think you can let me down now," she said. "I'm ready to give it another go."

"Good," Deyton said. "As long as you don't fall on me again."

"What, you saying you can't even carry ninety pounds?" Kaylie laughed. "Come on, Deyton, you're tougher than that!"

"Oh, you're in for it…" he said maliciously. He started to chase Kaylie, who was much faster, but I assumed it was more the idea of the game that was fun more than the advantage Kaylie had over Deyton of being smaller and faster.

I sighed and turned back to my attic. I shouldn't even have been watching them. It was distracting me from my work, and, worst of all, it only reminded me of Eric. I couldn't think about Eric anymore. He was off limits to my mind.

I began searching through the boxes again. I pulled out the photo album I had found the picture of Danni in and began to look at it again, starting where I left off.

I looked at my parents, around sixteen, finally together by the looks of it. Another happy couple. I slammed the album shut, sending out a mushroom cloud of dust into my mouth, and shoved it aside.

Next there was a yellowing piece of folded up paper. I opened it up, careful not to let it crumble in my hands.

It appeared to be a map of some kind, though not of anyplace I'd been before. Written all over was my mother's handwriting, marking places like "Skulker's Lair" and "Fright Knight's Castle." It looked almost like a map of an amusement park- an amusement park I would never go to. But somewhere in my mind, the names on the paper rang a bell. I remembered the CD I had found with all of the names of ghosts on it. Skulker, Fright Knight, both had been on the list. This was a map of where they lived, and I would bet whatever dignity I had left on the fact that it was behind the walls of that portal.

I sat up. Deyton and Kaylie had to see this- finally, we could go beyond the portal with some certainty of what was behind it. I took off down the stairs and out the front door, the paper still clutched in my hand.

"Deyton! Kaylie!" Both were sitting in the driveway, obviously worn out by whatever the heck they had been doing earlier. You know what, I didn't even want to know what they had been doing earlier.

"What?" Deyton asked, as if I had completely interrupted him, which I guess I had, in a way, but he wasn't doing anything that I cared about anyway. I continued on as if he was actually interested.

"Look what I found up in the attic," I said, holding up the folded piece of paper.

"Wow!" Deyton exclaimed sarcastically. "Moldy paper! If you think that's great, then I'm pretty sure I have some stale French fries up in my room that you would love."

"Okay, first of all, ew," I responded. Kaylie laughed. "And second of all, it's not a moldy piece of paper! It's a map of what's behind the portal. Now we can find out where all the ghosts come from, and what's really back there."

"Even with that map, Ellie, it's still really dangerous," Kaylie said as if I was crazy to even think of going, which I probably was, but still. "You may know where those places are, but you can't be sure _what_ they are. It could be some kind of black hole that just swallows you up and spits you out in the nineteen thirties or something."

"Like that would ever happen," I said. "And besides, I'm not going to be sucked into a black hole because you guys are going with me."

"What?" they both said at once.

----------------------

"I can't believe you talked us into this," Deyton said incredulously.

"Don't be such a sissy," I responded. "We're in, we look around, we check out the black holes, and we're out. Nothing to worry about. Besides, I'll be with you. They wouldn't hurt another ghost."

"Wow, I feel so safe," he said. "Maybe you can shield us with your mediocre ghost powers."

Before I could even respond, Kaylie hit Deyton in the back of the head. He merely whimpered slightly and shut up.

"Are you ready?" I asked, holding my finger over the "Open" button.

Deyton looked ready to shout out "No", but Kaylie was ready and retaliated with a definitive "Yes." I pushed the button.

Swirls of green mist faced us, with hints of other things behind it in the background. I transformed into my ghost form and held out a hand to either side for Deyton and Kaylie to take. Together, we all walked into the ghost zone.

It almost appeared like we were walking on nothing, which obviously scared my two "comrades." I was used to flying, and it even creeped me out. I looked around and behind me, back at our basement, and then into the mist.

"Kaylie, let me see the map," I asked. Kaylie handed it to me, and I began to try and figure out where we were.

"Okay, we saw it, let's go back now," Deyton pleaded, and Kaylie nodded.

"For goodness sake, we haven't seen anything but mist yet," I added. "We need to see what's beyond this." When they still looked utterly frightened, I explained, "Okay, I'll make you a deal. We will only go as far as…" I inspected the map, "…Clockwork's Tower. From what I can get from this map, it should be the first one we come across."

"And if it turns out to be a black hole leading to a parallel dimension?" Kaylie asked.

"Then you may say 'I told you so' for the rest of eternity, okay?" I responded. This, apparently, did not comfort either of them, but at least I had made them a reasonable deal, in my opinion.

We continued along the pathway of the green mist towards what looked to me to be some sort of tower like what was on the map. As we approached, I was almost certain that I saw a clock at the top of it.

"Look!" I exclaimed. "And you thought it was a black hole."

"How do you know it's not?" Deyton said. "It could be a really smart black hole, and it's just disguising itself so it can lure you into the fourth dimension of no return."

"There's no such thing as a fourth dimension of no return," I said.

"How do you know, Ellie, how can you be sure?" Deyton was in a state of panic.

"Oh, suck it up, Deyton, you can freak out once we go inside," I scoffed.

"WHAT?" he yelled. "No way in heck am I going in that thing!"

"Well, then, I guess you can just wait outside, alone, while Kaylie and I go in," I said. Kaylie looked at me doubtfully, as if she was having her own doubts about going in.

As doubtful as my friend and my cowardly cousin were, we still approached the floating clock tower. Kaylie began to shake horribly and Deyton's eyes darted from side to side as if looked for an escape route. I, on the other hand, didn't much care. The adrenaline pumping through me increasing with each step I took, and by the time we were at the huge oak doors, I felt completely invincible.

Deyton, Kaylie and I looked up the tower. It stood hundreds of feet above us, floating in midair, made of cold hard stone. The doors alone reached up like, two stories. I couldn't remember ever feeling so small in comparison. I listened carefully- behind the door there were a few voices, seemingly shouting, but I couldn't make out what they were saying; and, of course, the unmistakable sound of ticking clocks and turning cogs.

I raised my hand to knock on the door confidently.

"Wait!" Kaylie yelled. "Ellie, this isn't a good idea. You don't know what's in there or who's in there or what they're _doing_ in there. They could be waiting for someone like you to come along so they can-"

I was skeptical, so I cut in, "Can what?"

"So they can, I dunno, pull out your eyeballs and make them into soup or something!" Deyton reached up and felt his eyes, as if saying goodbye to them. Kaylie continued, "The point is, you have no idea what you're getting-"

The door swung open slightly, creaking on its hinges with a noise that chilled me right to the bone.

"-into," Kaylie finished very quietly.

I felt like turning tail and running back home. All invincibility I had once had drained from me and was replaced with the strong urge to run. But yet, I couldn't seem to move my feet, and neither could Deyton or Kaylie. We were stuck.

A shadow appeared behind the door. It was very dimly lit in the tower, and I couldn't make out their face. Whoever it was, they were only about my height, and were slouching slightly in a depressed sort of way.

"Come in," they said, "Welcome to Clockwork's Tower."

A doorman?

"Well, come in, or I'm shutting this door because you're letting the heat out," whoever it was said. For some reason, my feet chose that moment to move. Forward.

Deyton and Kaylie followed me in, completely dazed themselves. The floor was cold hard marble, and I could hear the ticking louder than ever. I looked upwards- millions upon millions of cogs were ticking together all around me. Gold ones, silver ones, small ones, large ones that had to be fifty feet in diameter were all ticking happily together everywhere.

"I see you noticed the cogs," the doorman said. "At my last count, we had three million two hundred ninety six thousand eight hundred and sixty five. But that was only this morning, so Clockwork could have added on more."

"You're not Clockwork?" Kaylie asked.

"No!" Not-Clockwork said forcefully. "I'm-"

"TICK-TOCK!" a loud booming voice came from somewhere, echoing off of the stone walls and floor. Not-Clockwork sighed.

"Come with me," he said, leading us through an enormous archway into a slightly more well-lit room.

This room didn't look a whole lot different from the last. Thousands more cogs surrounded us on the walls. The only difference besides the lighting was the fact that there was another person- ghost- whatever here.

He was sitting on a rather elaborate chair. The man was a pale shade of blue green, with a purple cloak draped around him. A large staff was leaning against the chair, which he floated just above in a sitting position. He got up and picked up his staff, but what really shocked me was that he changed shape- all of a sudden, he was old. Kaylie gasped slightly next to me.

"Yeah, everyone's always real impressed with that trick," Not-Clockwork said.

"Tick-Tock! I told you a million times to answer the door on time-" the changing man began.

"And I told _you_ a million times to not call me Tick-Tock, Uncle Colin!" Not-Tick-Tock/ Clockwork began. "My name is-"

"I know full well what your name is, but in here you are Tick-Tock!" the changing man said angrily. "When we are at work, you are no longer my nephew and I am no longer your uncle! We are master and apprentice, do you hear me?"

"Full well, _Uncle Colin_," Tick-Tock said, testing his waters a little too much if you ask me.

The changing man made an extremely angry noise and yelled at Tick-Tock again, "Go count the cogs!"

"Again?" the apprentice asked.

"Yes, again! I have since added more cogs from this morning and you need to count them!"

"I don't see why you just can't remember how many you put on and just add instead of telling me to do it…" Tick-Tock mumbled, walking away. "Master of All Time and you can't even do a simple math problem…"

"Maybe we could come back another time…" Deyton asked quietly.

"No, you will not come back another time, I will see you now," the Master of All Time said. "Welcome to my tower, I am Clockwork, Master of All Time! And, of course, you've already met my apprentice, Tick-Tock-"

From somewhere high above us Tick-Tock screamed at his uncle, "My name is not Tick-Tock! It's Joe! Joe Santanowitz!"

"That doesn't sound like counting cogs to me!" Clockwork yelled up at him.

"If you don't like your apprentice, then why did you hire him?" Kaylie asked Clockwork.

"Because he's also my nephew," he responded. "My sister Cogitha made me take him. If I didn't, then she refused to do the Christmas parties anymore. Do you have any idea what it's like to have to spend every day with a relative that annoys you that much?"

"I have an idea of what it feels like," I said, shooting a glance at Deyton, who stuck out his tongue.

"No, I have seen your future, and you have no clue," Clockwork said. We all looked at each other and shrugged. Clockwork continued to talk. "So, what have you come to ask me about, Ellie, Kaylie and Deyton?"

"How do you know our names?" I asked.

"I know everything, Ellie," he said. "I know more about your past, your present and your future than you will ever know. It's one of the perks of this job."

"Yeah, in a creepy stalker sort of way…" Deyton mumbled under his breath.

"Anyway, I know that you have come here for no reason at all," Clockwork explained. I didn't even want to know how he knew that. "But, I still have something to show you."

We all looked at each other again, wishing we had fled before when we had had the chance. "What do you want to show us?" I asked, only half-wanting to know the answer.

"Ellie, you don't know much about your father, do you?" he asked.

I was taken aback. "I know a lot about my dad," I said.

"Sure, you may think that you do," Clockwork said. "But really, you don't. Do you know that your grandparents hunted your father because they didn't know that he was their son? Do you know that your father dated another girl before your mother? Do you know that Vlad Plasmius, your father's arch enemy, was in love with your grandmother?"

"Ew!" Deyton and I yelled together. "I did not need to know that!"

"Yes, you do!" Clockwork said. "You need to know everything in order to understand anything. Because what you don't know right now, Ellie Fenton, could very easily kill you."

I stared at Clockwork, and at the numerous cogs. "Okay then," I said, trying to stay calm. "What don't I know?"

I could tell Clockwork had been building up to this. "I believe that you should find that out on your own," he said. "I can't tell you, or he may come after me. The future would be ruined, and I would have no way of stopping it."

Why did people keep talking like this? Everyone kept telling me that I was in danger, that I should watch out, that _he_ would find me… but I had no way of knowing what was meant by it. Who was he, and why did I have to be so careful? I was sick and tired of being told I should know something but never being told what it was. I was tired of not knowing everything.

"But then how am I supposed to know? How am I supposed to not be killed over this? You're not making any sense! You tell me I need to know something but then don't even tell me what it is! I thought you had something important to show us, but now you're not even going to bother," I said to Clockwork.

"Cool your temper, Ellie," he said. "That's what got you into your predicament in the first place, was it not?"

"We're not here to talk about how I got into this predicament," I said. "From the impression you gave me, I thought you were going to tell me how to get out."

"You're jumping to conclusions again," Clockwork said. "You have a tendency to do that. I never said that I wasn't going to show you what you need to know."

"I'm confused," Deyton said. "You said you were going to tell her, and then you said you weren't, and now you saying you are again! Are you going to show us anything or not?"

"Yes," he said, "and no."

"That doesn't help!" Deyton exclaimed.

"You are easily confused, Deyton," Clockwork said. "But we're not here to talk about that."

"What _are_ we here to talk about?" Kaylie asked.

"Now, I'm not really supposed to show you anything because that would put everyone and the future in danger," Clockwork said. "But, let's just say that you found some medallions that would help you get to the future on the floor." Clockwork dropped three medallions on the floor with an odd insignia on them. He gestured that we pick them up. We each took one. "And let's just say I also left a piece of paper with the name of who is threatening you with the medallions." He dropped a paper on the floor, and I took it. "And let's just say that I left the tower on official business and left Joe- I mean Tick-Tock- in charge, and he took you into the past to see what you needed to see. Now, nobody would really be at fault, because Joe is merely an apprentice and doesn't know what he's doing-"

"Yes I do!" a voice yelled.

"Count your cogs!" Clockwork yelled before continuing. "And I wouldn't be at fault because I wasn't even here, and it was only an accident I left those things lying out. So, do you get what I'm saying?"

Kaylie and I nodded. Deyton took a moment to think before nodding.

"Good," he said, and then looked up. "TICK-TOCK! GET DOWN HERE!"

Joe appeared from behind a mass of cogs. I could now see him properly: he didn't look a whole lot different from a normal teenager, except for the fact that he had bluish skin like Clockwork and grey-ish hair. He wore normal clothes and had a stopwatch around his neck with the same type of insignia that the medallions had on them.

"I thought you wanted me to count cogs!" he said. "I wasn't even past five-thousand yet!"

"Nevermind that," Clockwork said. "I need you to take these people into the past."

"Finally, and excuse to get out of here," Joe said. "But where am I supposed to take them?"

"I believe it's all on this paper that I accidentally left lying around," he answered, handing Joe a sheet of paper. "Just- be careful."

"I know, I've done this before," Joe said.

"I've never given you permission before," Clockwork responded.

"Erm, well, maybe you just… um… forgot…" he said, shifting his eyes back and forth. "Well, see you later Uncle Colin!"

"You're counting cogs when you get back!"

"Aren't I always…" Joe mumbled, then looked at us. "Are you ready?"

"I guess so," I said. "But I still don't think we know exactly what we're doing."

"Oh, you will," Joe said. He took his stopwatch in his hand and clicked a button on the side. Suddenly a small round portal-like thing appeared in midair, filled with mist. He clicked a few other buttons, and an image appeared.

It was Amity Park. Not the Amity Park I had known, but I could still tell what it was. I recognized the Nasty Burger, only it was painted differently, and the high school, which I had never gone to but knew what it looked like. In this scene the big addition had not been put on it yet, and all the houses were painted different colors.

"Welcome to Amity Park, during the time of Danny Phantom," Joe said. "Well, during the early days of Danny Phantom. When he was only a teenager, I guess I should say."

So this was what Amity Park looked like to my dad. I recognized Fenton Works, with its huge tower on top. That was where he lived.

"So we're going back to Ellie's old town?" Kaylie asked.

"Yep," Joe responded.

"But we're going back to when Uncle Danny and my mom were teenagers?" Deyton asked.

"Yep," Joe responded again.

"And we're going to go through that portal into that time and see them?" I inquired.

"Wow, you guys are really slow on the uptake," Joe said.

"I told you there was a hole that takes you to another time and place!" Deyton exclaimed.

"Yeah, but it doesn't lead to the fourth dimension of no return, now, does it?" Kaylie said.

"Okay, I have no clue what you guys are talking about, but can we go already?" Joe asked.

"Let's go," I said.

"Before I change my mind," Deyton added.

Joe stepped through the portal, disappearing. Kaylie stepped in after him, and then Deyton. I took one last look at Clockwork, who gestured to go through. Whatever was behind this portal, I had to find out. I stepped through.

A/N: This is what happens to Clockwork when he's stuck with Joe all day! I had a lot of fun making up Joe Santanowitz and just had to include him. In the next chapter, "Time's A-Wasting" (corny, I know), Ellie and Kaylie and Deyton and Joe are all in Danny's Amity Park. This should get interesting...

Until next update,

Rachel


	37. Time's A Wasting

_A/N: Sorry for the wait, guys! It was a long chapter and I've had a lot to do, plus a little writer's block. The next chapter is called "Over Dinner," and it's one I've been looking forward to writing for a really long time. I'll bring up another new character. He's been mentioned before though, so if you go back you might find him. Anyway, until next update... Rachel. Enjoy!_

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Time's A-Wasting

I stepped through the portal, and was now standing next to Kaylie and Deyton, not really sure where we were. This certainly was not Amity Park as I remembered it. We were behind some sort of building, and there was a dumpster full of trash next to us. I looked around at Joe and Kaylie and Deyton; they were all cringing at the scent of the alleyway.

"Where the heck are we?" Deyton said.

"I thought we went over this already!" Joe said, smacking his forehead in frustration. "We're in Amity Park! Can you get that into your tiny little mind or not?"

"This isn't Amity Park," Deyton responded. "I just moved from there-here- whatever, like, a couple months ago and it does not look like this."

"You may have moved from here a couple months ago," Joe said slyly, "but we're not in Amity Park a couple of months ago. We're in Amity Park a couple of decades ago."

"This is so weird…" Deyton mumbled.

"Yes, it is," Joe said curtly. "Any more questions or can we actually get back on track? Because we're kind of on the clock here."

"Literally," Kaylie murmured.

Joe pulled up his sleeve, as a lot of people do to check their watch. But he didn't have just one watch on his arm, he had at least ten. Some appeared to be solid gold, and others looked hundreds of years old. He checked each one carefully, shook his head, and pulled up his other sleeve, revealing ten more watches. Again, he studied each one, found the one he was looking for, checked the time, and pulled his sleeve down again. He looked our astonished faces.

"My dad's a watchmaker," he explained.

"So your mom's related to Clockwork and your dad's a watchmaker?" I asked, and Joe nodded. "Wow, you were born into this business."

"You're telling me," he said, shaking his head slightly. "I wanted to be a firefighter when I was little, but I'm beginning to really like working for Clockwork, despite what he says. After all, there's no steadier business than the business of time."

We all nodded.

"Okay, so, back on track!" Joe seemed frustrated for letting himself lose focus. "Let's lay some ground rules here. First of all, those people out there, they can see you, but I've made it so they can't see me. So don't just go talking to thin air. Second of all, don't let anyone know who you are. Remember, your parents are only teenagers, so don't go mouthing off and telling them that you're their kid and that they get married and stuff. It makes a whole mess of things that I would have to fix, and I don't like doing extra work if I don't have to."

"Ditto," Deyton interjected.

Joe continued as if he hadn't heard Deyton. "Third of all, remember what you're here for. Do what you can to get your information without giving a ton of information about yourself. And last of all, Ellie, I need you to be human again. This town isn't- erm, well-accepting of ghosts. And everyone else needs to tuck in their medallions because some people here will know what they mean."

I transformed back to being human and tucked my medallion under my shirt. Kaylie and Deyton did too. I then realized I still had the paper clockwork had given me in my hand.

"What is this?" I asked Joe, holding up the paper.

"It's your directions," he said. "I'm not supposed to tell you anything other than ground rules. I'm to do nothing but be your guide and to follow you. That's your instructions for what to do."

I opened up the paper. In very neat handwriting, it read, 'Amity Park, Casper High, Library. 2:15 PM. Daniel Fenton, Sam Manson, Tucker Foley. Dan Phantom.'

"So what do you think this means?" I asked Kaylie and Deyton, who had crowded around me.

"Well, the first one is obviously the place," Kaylie said. "And after that, the time, I'm sure."

"The names are probably who we're supposed to meet," Deyton said. "We're supposed to meet Uncle Danny and Aunt Sam and Uncle Tucker, obviously."

"What's the last name then?" I asked. "Who is Dan Phantom, and why does he have my dad's name?"

Joe began to cough, but the coughing sounded a lot like the words, "What. You're. Supposed. To. Ask. About." Joe took a moment to breath. "Sorry, it's just this alley is kind of dusty."

"Sure it is," I said.

"Anyway," Joe said casually. "It's two o'clock, and I suggest that if you're planning on going anywhere, you might want to start off now…"

"Good idea," I said. "Ready guys?" I asked Deyton and Kaylie.

"Sure," they responded, shrugging.

We stepped out onto the sidewalk, and I studied the street. We had been behind the Nasty Burger, I now realized. No wonder it smelled so bad. When I had moved from Amity Park, that place was having serious issues with the Health Department.

"Deyton, do you remember where Casper High was?" I asked. "I never got to go there, so I'm not entirely sure. Everything just looks so… different."

"Yeah, I think I remember, unless they moved it or something," he said. "Who knows in this wacky world."

Deyton began to lead us down several streets. Joe whistled a little tune behind us, and Kaylie and I took in the sights. I was surprised at how many people I recognized, how many people had stayed in Amity Park and raised kids I had gone to school with. I recognized Mr. Kwan walking down the street holding hands with Starr Masters. I had gone to school with Mr. Kwan's daughter, Susan Kwan. In fact, it had been Susan Kwan's birthday party that I had been trapped in the closet. And as for Starr Masters… I couldn't help but wonder that if she had married Mr. Kwan instead of Vlad, I wouldn't have had to deal with the spawn that is Darius Masters.

"This is where you lived, Ellie?" Kaylie asked me quietly.

"In a manner of speaking," I said. "This Amity Park looks very different. But I lived for awhile with my grandparents at Fenton Works." I pointed down one of the streets to Fenton Works, with numerous random pieces of ghost-hunting equipment protruding from the roof. "We lived there until I started school. Because both my parents worked, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents. My grandfather used to let me help him in the lab to try and catch ghosts. Then we moved to an apartment building." I pointed down the street to the stony-gray faced building that had housed our little apartment. "I still spent a lot of time at my grandparents' house though. I'll always think of Fenton Works as my previous home, not that little apartment."

"That makes sense," Kaylie said. "I've never lived anywhere but Specterton. My parents bought the house when the found out they were having another kid. Where did you live, Deyton?"

Before Deyton could answer, I interjected, "That little rich boy? He lived across town in a huge townhouse. Actually, it was near where my mom's parents live. Of course, that was back when Aunt Jazz was running her practice, before it went under."

"I'm glad to be away from that place," Deyton said. "It was so big, and had all this weird furniture and art in it that I wasn't allowed to touch… I like Specterton so much better."

Kaylie nodded. I'm sure our family seemed very dysfunctional to her, but really, we were just like everyone else.

"Here we are," Deyton said.

We were now standing in front of Casper High; this place had, for some reason or another, had always given me the creeps. It had celebrated its one hundred fiftieth birthday when I was little, and it certainly looked its age. The school looked very cold and foreboding. Deyton looked at it too; he had actually attended here his freshman year. Casper High had always been a very strange place.

"Well, let's go in!" Kaylie said. "To repeat Joe, we're on a clock here." I heard Joe laugh slightly behind us at this comment, then silence himself.

"It's not as easy as just going in," Deyton said. "The teachers watch you here, and we have to somehow get upstairs into the library. So… follow my lead, I guess."

"Oh, I feel so safe," I said, mimicking Deyton. "Maybe you can help us with your mediocre social skills."

Deyton gave me a hard look as if to say, 'do you have any other ideas?' I cocked my head and gestured to go in.

Deyton led the way up the stone steps. Slowly, we all stepped into the building, Joe following us silently. The school loomed down us forebodingly, warning us to not do anything we would regret. I silently agreed… I would rather not do anything that I would regret.

The hallways we deserted. I guessed it was between class periods when no one was in the hallways except stragglers that needed to use the bathroom. I hoped we wouldn't run across an off-duty teacher, because if they asked us anything… I didn't even want to think about it.

"Good, no one's here," Deyton said, making for the stairs.

"No, bad, no one's here," Kaylie said. "We could at least blend in with a crowd, but out here, we're exposed."

"What are we doing, going hunting?" I asked. "Just get a move on!"

Deyton, Kaylie, Joe and I began to creep up the stairs. Deyton looked around the door before we went through it. When the coast was clear, we entered the second floor hallway.

"What are you doing out of class?" a stern voice said from down the hallway. A very tough-looking gym teacher was striding towards us. We froze, dead in our tracks, completely unsure of what to say.

"We-we're going to the library," Kaylie explained while Deyton nodded vigorously.

"Why would you being going there in the middle of the period?" the teacher said.

"We're working on a project," Deyton made up.

"For whom?" the lady asked, not believing us.

Deyton and Kaylie looked at each other in horror. My mind raced. If I said a wrong name, this woman would know and we would get in trouble… I heard Joe behind me breathing hard; he wasn't sure what to do either.

"Mr. Lancer," I finally blurted out, remembering my father's English teacher.

"Oh, of course," the lady said. "Him and that stupid book report, of course that's who you're here for… Anyway, carry on." The tough-looking teacher turned and strode away.

We all sighed, and Deyton walked us all the way to library as quickly and quietly as possible. Once inside, we all breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness you thought of Mr. Lancer, Ellie," Kaylie said. "I wasn't coming up with anything."

"Ditto," Deyton breathed.

"Good thinking," I heard Joe whisper. We all gave a slight nod so as not to talk to thin air.

"So," I continued in a whisper, "we're looking for my mom and dad and Uncle Tucker. So keep your eyes out, but don't draw too much attention to yourself. And act like you belong!" I added as Deyton started marveling at how small the library was compared with when he went there.

We began to browse through the shelves. Joe stayed behind. "I can't go any further," he explained quietly as we walked away. "I'm not allowed to interfere."

"Look," Kaylie said after a few moments. She pointed toward a table in the corner of the library. Three kids sat around it. I gasped slightly: there were both my parents, sitting with my Uncle Tucker, casually flipping through volumes of books. My dad still looked almost the same; same black hair, casual clothes, slightly bored manner. My mom was a bit of a different story. I knew that my mother liked black and dark things, but I had never really imagined her as _Goth_… But there she sat, completely decked out in black and combat boots. Uncle Tucker looked only slightly changed, but then he pulled a PDA out of his pocket, and I saw that he hadn't really changed at all.

"Let's go over," I said. "Grab a few books and then we can go sit down and strike up a conversation."

I grabbed random books off the shelves, as did Kaylie and Deyton. As casually as we could, we meandered over and sat down with my parents and uncle. My dad looked up briefly at us, as did my mom and Uncle Tucker, who held my gaze momentarily then looked away; for a second I thought they were going to refuse us the use of the table.

I began to flick through my book, trying to keep an eye on everything while doing so. Kaylie appeared to be doing the same thing, but Deyton was busying himself looking at the pictures in his book.

"Are you reading this?" I looked over. Tucker was looking at me and pointing to one of the books I had pulled randomly from the shelves, A Modern History of Electronics.

"You can take it," I said.

"No, I just wanted to tell you that it's my favorite book," he said. "Very descriptive."

"Good," I said. "Maybe I'll get around to reading it."

"I'd like to tell you more about it sometime…" Tucker said. "I'm Tucker Foley, TF, as in Too Fine… Maybe I can tell you more about that book over dinner sometime."

Something registered in my head. "Oh my gosh, are you _hitting on me_?" I nearly screamed, completely disregarding the fact that we were in a library. "Ew! Ew, ew, ew, ew!" I was on my feet now, walking to the other end of the table. Everyone was looking at me.

"I didn't think I was _that_ repulsive," Tucker said, slightly hurt.

"It-it's not you," I said, trying to mend things before they got worse. "It's just- I would prefer if you didn't do that again. Ever." The fact that I had just been hit on by one of my dad's friends completely creeped me out, but this was supposed to be a sort of covert operation, so I had to control my impulse to gag if I wanted any information at all.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," he said.

"You're Danny Fenton, aren't you?" Kaylie said to my dad, trying to get back on track.

"Yeah," my dad responded. "Who are all of you?"

"I'm Kay-" Kaylie seemed to stop herself, and thought better of using her real name. "I'm Kay…lynn. Kaylynn Burg." It wasn't very creative, but it was believable.

"Nice to meet you, Kaylynn," my mom said. "Who are you two?" She looked at Deyton and I.

"We're…" I thought for a moment. "We're Lily and Frank Burk. Frank is my older brother."

"Yes, I am Frank," Deyton said, trying to reaffirm what I said, but just sounding fake. I gave him a look before turning back around.

"Well, erm… nice to meet you, Lily, Frank, and Kaylynn," my mom said. "We're-"

"Oh, we already know who you are!" Deyton exclaimed.

"Dey- FRANK!" I yelled at him.

"What?" my dad said. "You already know us? How?"

"The how… is really not important," I said, trying not to give too much away. "Really, we need to ask you something."

"Ask us something! We don't even know you!" Tucker said.

"We need to know about Dan Phantom," Kaylie interjected, getting right to the point.

There was a collective gasp amongst my mom, dad, and uncle. "How the heck did you know about that?" my dad asked in a dangerous whisper.

"Again, we're not really here to discuss the how…" My argument was getting more meager as the conversation went on. I had not expected this much opposition from my parents to give me the information.

"Clockwork sent us," Kaylie said. I heard Joe moan slightly at the fact that he and his uncle were being brought into this. "It's secret. He said he would explain to you later."

"How do we know you're not lying?" Tucker asked.

I felt like banging my head on the table. We didn't have time for this!

Kaylie pulled her medallion out from under her shirt. I nearly attacked her- we weren't supposed to be admitting Clockwork and Joe's involvement _at all_. And here Kaylie was, giving us away completely.

Her trick, it seemed, did work, though. My mom, dad, and uncle all gave each other looks saying "well, that's good enough for me, I guess" and nodded.

"What do you want to know?" my dad asked.

"Everything," I said.

"Well… it's certainly a long story," my dad said, and began to tell a story I could have never even dreamed of.

Never, ever, in a million years would I have guessed what my dad would tell me. He began to tell me a story including him as evil in the future, all because he cheated… how Clockwork intervened, trying to take him out before he could cause any damage… how my mother and aunt and uncle and grandparents had been dead in the future, and that it had all been my dad's fault… how Dan Phantom had been evil enough to try and kill everyone… and how, in the end, my father had sucked Dan Phantom into the Fenton Thermos and gained the power of the ghostly wail (I was shocked when I heard this, realizing that I, too, had the same power). Clockwork was right- there was so much I didn't know. And so much I needed to.

"And now, as far as I know, Dan Phantom is still in that thermos, locked up in Clockwork's tower," my dad ended. "But honestly, I don't think you have much to worry about, Clockwork's pretty good about keeping that stuff safe."

I looked at Kaylie and Deyton, not entirely sure of that. Why would Clockwork send us here if Dan Phantom wasn't a threat? Was he who we were supposed to be looking for, who had killed Vlad and attempted to kill my father?

"I don't see why you would really need to know this," my mom said.

"Trust me," Deyton said, "that just cleared up a lot for us."

Joe whispered in my ear. "We really need to get going."

"I'm sorry, but we really have to go," I said. "You don't know how much I would like to stay and talk to you, but we need to get back to Clockwork."

"Erm… okay," my dad said, slightly confused. "I guess we'll be seeing you around, then."

"Trust me," I said. "You will."

And with my mom, dad, and uncle staring at us in a confused manner, Kaylie, Deyton and I (or should I say Frank, Kaylynn, and Lily?) exited the library with Joe right behind us.

Joe materialized just outside the doorway. "You're almost over your time! We need to get back to Clockwork Tower _now_." Again, a portal appeared midair, and after a last look at the library, I stepped through.

We were all back in Clockwork's lair, where he was waiting for us. "It went fine, Uncle Colin," Joe said.

"What went fine?" Clockwork said. "As far as I know, you were here."

"So what was the point of that?" Deyton said. "From what Uncle Danny just told us, we're not in danger. Dan Phantom's still here."

Clockwork sighed. "If only that were true," he said. "Then the Ghost Zone wouldn't be in this mess. From what I can tell, somehow, he got out. He tried in vain for so many years. The old thermos just wasn't strong enough to hold someone like that."

"So you're saying he's out, and he's coming after us?" Kaylie said worriedly. She looked at me as if Dan Phantom was going to attack me at any moment.

"Yes, he's out, and he's coming after everyone," Clockwork said while Joe nodded solemnly next to him. He looked at me. "Especially you and your father, Ellie. Your father was who trapped him all this time. Your father is part of him that he hates, and he will do anything to eliminate that part of himself and anything related to it. That's why he killed Vlad. That's why he hates Darius, and that's why he hates you."

I took a moment to absorb that, feeling all of a sudden weighed with a burden. "So why have you decided to tell me this? Why not Darius, or my dad?"

"Because, Ellie," Clockwork said quietly, very serious, "because I know you will do something."

I stared at him meekly. "How?"

"That's not for you to know," he said. "But I know that you will figure it out." He paused, and looked up at the millions of cogs gently ticking above our heads. "It's time for you to go," he said.

"Yeah, Ellie, we really need to be getting back," Kaylie interjected.

"Yeah, I have homework to do still," Deyton piped in.

"Okay," I said. I wished I could have stayed and asked more questions, but something told me neither Clockwork nor Joe would be able to answer any of them.

"Bye," Joe said.

"Bye," we all chimed in. Passing the three million two hundred ninety six thousand eight hundred and sixty five cogs, we made our way to the door. It swung open on its own. Kaylie and Deyton, eager to leave, stepped out first.

As if hoping for answers, I stopped and looked back. Clockwork and Joe were standing side by side, waiting for us to leave.

"Farewell, Ellie," Clockwork said. "Oh, and one more thing… Good luck with your friend Eric." Joe smiled and winked.

Thoroughly confused, I stepped through the door and closed it behind me. You know, so as not to let the heat out.


	38. Over Dinner

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Over Dinner

Specterton, Pennsylvania is sweltering hot in May. The weather turns warm and bakes the air like an oven. Even worse, Drogo High did not have air conditioning. Everyone was now wearing shorts and tank tops. The teachers were so hot they didn't even bother to hand out citations for breaches of the dress code. Classrooms were filled with kids with homemade fans and taking swigs from water jugs. I slowly fanned myself with my math notebook as Atlas droned on about point-slope form. I pulled my hair up off my neck and attempted to fan it.

"Try this, it works better," said the kid in the desk behind me. I turned. He handed me a homemade fan made of cardboard. It was certainly of higher quality than the flimsy paper ones I had made.

"Thanks," I said. I tried to remember his name. It was surprising that I didn't- he had sat behind me since Atlas had become teacher. And he was good-looking, too. Black hair hung onto his forehead casually, and even sitting down, I could tell he was tall. He smiled at me charmingly, realizing that I had forgotten him.

"I'm Randy," he said. "Randy Katenbaum."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," I said. "Hi, Randy. I'm Ellie Fenton."

"I know," he said. "But nice to meet you anyway."

"Ms. Fenton and Mr. Katenbaum-" Atlas began, about to cut off out conversation, but, just then, the bell rang.

I gathered up my things and stood up, as did Randy. He certainly was tall. "Here's your fan," I said, giving it back to him. "Thanks for letting me use it."

"No, you can keep it," he responded. "That is, if you agree to sit with me at lunch."

Kaylie wandered over. "If you don't mind Kaylie coming, too," I said.

"Oh, hey Kaylie," Randy greeted. "Good. You can both come. See you at lunch." And with that, he walked off, leaving me to merely watch.

"Was Randy just hitting on you?" Kaylie asked, surprised.

"I… think so," I replied, shocked myself.

We made for the hallway and walked toward our lockers. "What about Eric?" Kaylie inquired. I had been dreading this question for a long time.

Just then, I saw him. Eric was emerging from History class. We hadn't spoken since our fight in Washington. So many times, I had just sat and stared at the phone, wanting to call him. So many times, Kaylie had told me to talk to him. She said he was a mess without me, and vice versa. Really, it was true- I had lost interest in a lot of the things I once really enjoyed. I no longer watched TV, no longer read books, drew pictures, went on the internet, or really talked to anyone at all. For the most part, I just sat in my room listening to the silence. That, and ghost training. I had gone into hyper-drive after the visit with Clockwork; somehow, I had to think of a way to defeat Dan Phantom before he got to me, or my dad. I put my head down as Eric passed me in the hallway, feeling all at once ashamed and miserable. From the small glimpse I got of him, Eric didn't look too great either.

I looked back up. Kaylie looked at me with worried eyes. "I'm fine," I said sternly. "And Eric… well, sometimes you just have to move on."

"You're right," Kaylie said. "The only thing is, you haven't moved on. Neither of you have. You and Eric just mope around all day thinking that you don't need each other. It's really sad. I don't see why you just don't make up."

"It's a lot more complex than that, Kaylie," I said.

Kaylie gave me a sad, pitying smile. "No, Ellie, it's not," she said. "That's just what you tell yourself. I'll see you at lunch… with Randy."

I turned to my locker and gathered my things.

-------------------

Randy was waiting for Kaylie and I at lunch. We had stopped eating in the nurse's office since Eric and I began fighting; Kaylie now just went in between classes. I could barely stand to be around the place anymore. There were so many fond memories of laughing and being happy that it almost made me sick to my stomach.

"Hi Kaylie," Randy greeted. "Hey Ellie."

"Hi Randy," I responded, surprised to feel that I was going slightly pink.

We all sat down and began to eat. "So, how did you guys do on that math test?" Randy asked.

"Eh," Kaylie responded, shrugging. "Like an eighty-three. It was harder than usual."

"You just don't like radicals," I said. "They're my favorite thing we've done all year. I got, like, a ninety seven on that test."

"You're really smart, Ellie," Randy said. "You too, Kaylie. I remember you got the highest first semester grade."

Kaylie shrugged as if it was nothing, but I was impressed. "You really think I'm smart?" I asked.

"Of course I do," he responded. "I wouldn't say something I didn't mean."

I was shocked. No one had ever really called me smart. Not that anyone ever really called me dumb, but I was really only an average B student. I wasn't even taking any advanced classes. Eric had always been the smart one, with his advanced English and AP Geometry… Kaylie and I kind of lived in his academic shadow, excelling at our own things. I had never thought that I might be smart, too.

I smiled at Randy's comment and looked around. Eric was sitting across the lunchroom with all of his Chess-Club-Jazz-Band friends. He didn't even look my way. Not that I cared or anything.

Lunch passed in general conversation. Randy was really a very interesting person: he had been all around the world, his parents owned a huge farm that took up half of Specterton, his ancestors had founded the town, and he was a star lacrosse player. I had never realized that there were other interesting people in our school. Maybe that seems kind of stupid, but really, the way I saw it, you were either Lianna's friend, or well… Kaylie, Eric, me, or one of the members of the Chess Club. There seemed to be no social in-between group.

Kaylie left a few minutes early to go down to the nurse and check her blood sugar, leaving Randy and I alone.

"Hey Ellie," Randy began.

"Hey what," I replied.

"Nevermind," he said quietly, looking back down at his food.

"No, go ahead," I said, trying not to sound too eager. I wanted to know what he had to say.

"You want to come over my house Friday night?" he said. "My house is right around the corner from the restaurant… maybe we can go out to eat or something."

Was Randy Katenbaum asking me out?

"So…" he paused, not sure how to continue, "you wanna come?"

My mouth seemed to resist any messages sent from my brain. Finally, I sputtered, "S-sure."

Randy sighed with relief. "Great," he said, excited. "You can come over around six. See you then."

He got up, threw out his trash, gave me a small wave, and left. I returned his wave, slightly less enthused.

What had I just done? _What had I just done? _I looked over at Eric, then out the doorway… had I just accepted another guy's invitation? Had I just moved on? Or had I just made the biggest mistake since breaking it off with Eric?

----------------------

"Dylan, honestly, just _pick something_," I said in earnest. "I need to be at Randy's in-"

"Two hours," Dylan responded. "Stop freaking out. I'll find something."

"Yeah, Ellie, just calm down," Kaylie said.

I groaned. Why had I asked them to help? It was Friday afternoon, and my 'date' with Randy was in two hours. About an hour ago, while searching my entire wardrobe for something decent, I had made the huge mistake of asking Dylan to help me. Kaylie, too, was beginning to help, and she wasn't making my cousin move any faster. In fact, they had gone over to Kaylie's house and borrowed some of her clothes. (I now fit into Kaylie's clothes- ghost training makes you forget to eat, and now I was as thin as a beanpole. Kaylie said it wasn't the ghost training that made me forget to eat, but I refused to believe her.)

The house was warm, my room especially, now that it was insulated with the clothing of a thousand shopping trips. Kaylie and Dylan had already checked the weather channel to see what I should wear, and I had also been interrogated about what colors would go best with my eyes, hair, and skin tone. Eventually I had just flopped onto my bed and didn't even bother.

Kaylie started straightening my hair at five, and I was ready to go (in Kaylie's clothes) by five-thirty.

"I told you we would have enough time," Dylan said. "Now don't touch your hair. We finally got it to lay flat."

I put my hand dangerously close to my head, and Dylan and Kaylie both immediately screamed. I laughed.

------------------

Randy probably had one of the largest houses I had ever seen besides the time my parents took me to see Biltmore Estate. It was large and elegant, from the Victorian era, I guessed, and was pure snow white with black plantation shutters on its twenty million windows. Each window was carefully covered with delicate lace, through which I could see the family's antique furniture. It was probably the most beautiful house I had ever seen, and I would have stopped to admire it more (and maybe admire the Porsche in the driveway a bit too), if I hadn't been so terrified to ring the doorbell.

I looked back. My dad had already driven away. Unless I wanted to walk all the way back across Specterton, I had to ring the doorbell. I could even hear the sound of Randy's family inside (he had many younger siblings). I reached up slowly.

Apparently someone on the other side of the door knew I was hesitating, and opened the door.

It was Randy. Realizing who I was, he gave me a charming smile. He looked as if someone had been helping him pick out his outfit for three hours, too; his collared shirt, jeans, and shoes all looked casual but extremely staged, just as I'm sure I looked in Kaylie's orange shirt and skirt.

"Hi Ellie," he said. I nodded back, my mind completely blank.

"Nice to see you," I said finally.

"You wanna go?" he asked. "I would invite you in, but my parents are serving dinner to my younger brothers and sister and it's a mess in there."

I peered past him. "It certainly doesn't look like a mess," I said, impressed.

"Yeah, I know," he said. "My parents are kind of, well, rich. We don't just own the farm, we also own the food company that distributes it, so- yeah."

"That's-impressive," I replied. "My mom just works for the EPA, and my aunt just started out at a psychiatry firm as an assistant. Nothing near as good as owning a company."

"Sounds more interesting than my parents' jobs though," Randy said. "All they talk about is, like, banana stocks in Japan."

I laughed.

"So… should we get going?" he asked.

"Sure," I said.

"We'll have to walk, but it's only just down the street," he explained. I nodded. He began to walk down the steps. I merely stood there. Randy looked back at me and held out his hand.

"Come on," he said. "You're supposed to take my hand and we're supposed to go have dinner together. That's kind of how it works."

I grinned and walked down the steps towards Randy. Without question, he took my hand in his and we began to walk together.

"Sorry," I said. "I don't do this often."

----------------

Now, not to be mean or anything, but Specterton does not have a restaurant. We have a shack that serves food. Jack of All Foods- the supposed downtown restaurant- is located next to our tiny strip mall and caddy-corner to the library. I had once asked Kaylie about it. Apparently, it used to be an abandoned trading post that the county had sold to the owners. They had fixed it up, but now it had an extremely odd look. It was sided with white brick, and the back eating area was surrounded by a very odd geometric fence. And as Randy and I walked inside, it was really only weirder.

"Wow," I said, blinking several times.

"I know," Randy replied. "Bright, isn't it?"

"Just a bit," I said. The walls were covered in bright purple and yellow flames. My eyes watered just looking at it.

"Randy!" the host exclaimed. "How are your parents?"

"Hello, Mrs. Green," he said. "My parents are doing fine. Anna just got over her cold, and Jeremy learned how to walk recently."

"Oh, that's lovely," Mrs. Green chattered. "And who is this nice young lady you have with you?"

I flushed bright red. I didn't like it when adults called me a 'nice young lady.' It made me feel like a girl from the thirties. Randy, though, did not seem to mind.

"This is Ellie," he responded. "Can we get a table?"

As he said this, it made me wonder if I really wanted a table; a sign on the door when we had walked in had read "Jack of All Foods: Now cleared by the health department!" I didn't seem to have much of a choice though, as Mrs. Green, whoever she was, led Randy and I out into the outdoor dining area.

It was a nice night, despite the heat. The stars sparkled in a clear sky, with a pleasant almost-full moon smiling down upon us. Lights bedazzled along the strange geometric fence and candles were carefully arranged on the tables. Soft music played from the speakers.

"Enjoy," the host said. "And very nice to see you, Randy."

"Always a pleasure," Randy said.

After the woman had walked away, I turned to Randy. "Who was that?"

"That's Mrs. Green," he said.

"Obviously," I interjected.

He continued as if I hadn't interrupted. "She lives around the corner from us, and she worked for my parents for awhile. She also has a son who plays with my little brother."

"Hello, Randy," said a man passing out of the restaurant.

"Hi, Mr. Karzowski," he said.

"Do you know everyone in this town?" I asked.

"Kind of," Randy said. I gave him a shocked look. "Well, it's really not that hard to know everyone in this town, especially if you've lived here your whole life."

"You must really know everything about this place," I said, thinking about how I didn't even know everything about my own family, or myself for that matter.

"Pretty much," he said.

"Do you want to stay here your whole life?" I said. Specterton seemed like Randy's home.

"Everyone always asks me that," he laughed. "And usually, I always say yes, because that's what people want to hear. Everyone wants to hear that where they live is the perfect place. Everyone wants to know they made the right choice moving here, and that their children are going to the right schools. But to be perfectly honest, no, I don't want to stay here. There's something bigger and better out there than inheriting my dad's farm company, and I plan to find it."

"That's very philosophical," I responded.

"No, very literal," he said. "There's always something out there, you just have to look for it."  
"If you look hard enough, you'll always find something you didn't know was there," I whispered, looking at my lap, remembering the night Eric said those exact words to me.

"Exactly," Randy said. "Let's order."

"Yeah," I said. "Okay."

Randy and I ordered our food. I was suddenly not in the mood to talk much. The thought of Eric's words resounded in my head. I looked up at the sky, with its millions of stars, and couldn't help but think that they were the exact same stars that had shone over Eric and I at the winter ball and in Washington D.C. I turned back to Randy, charming Randy with his head full of dreams, and felt a pang; I was wasting his time. What was I doing here anyway? Going on a date with a guy I liked, or trying to get over someone I loved?

"Ellie, are you okay?" Randy asked.

"I'm fine," I said, rushed.

"Good," he said, not completely convinced.

"Why don't you tell me about yourself," I said, trying to draw my mind from Eric.

"Okay," he said.

Our food arrived. I looked at it, examining carefully, checking to make sure they were really cleared by the health department. After clearing it as safe to eat, I began to eat.

Randy was a very interesting person. Although he lived in Specterton his whole life, he had many stories of the people who lived here and of his family to tell. It was really too bad I didn't hear any of them. I was completely off-focus throughout the entire conversation, only nodding and agreeing when needed. Several times Randy asked me to him about myself, but I refused. I was too busy letting my mind go. It wandered back and forth between memories of moving here and my friends. I was back in Amity Park, packing up my things in our apartment, then I was playing chess with Eric, then Amity Park again, looking at all the children playing in the yard but not joining them… I was not paying one bit of attention to what my date was saying. I had to be the worst person ever.

"So do you?" Randy's voice cut through my thoughts like a knife.

I was done eating, without even having realized it. "What?" I asked, confused.

"Would you like to dance? They have their DJ here tonight," he repeated.

"Oh," I said. Without thinking at all, I responded, "Okay."

Randy and I made our way onto the dance floor. Randy took my hand and we began to slowly move. We were both quiet.

After awhile, Randy looked at me straight in the eyes, making me feel uneasy under his gaze. "Can I ask you something?" he said.

"Alright," I whispered, distracted.

"You've been distracted all evening, and you seem really reluctant to be out with me to begin with," he said.

My insides squirmed slightly. How was I to tell Randy that I didn't really like him? He was so great, and so sweet, and he had been so polite about my odd behavior all evening… and yet, I knew, he really wasn't what I was supposed to be looking for. I decided to avoid his question. "That's not really a question, Randy," I said softly.

Randy laughed slightly. "What I'm asking you Ellie, really is…" he paused, obviously working up to say something difficult, "I'm really asking you if you like me Ellie, or if there's someone else. It's really okay if there is."

I stared at him blankly. How could he have possibly known? Were my feelings really that obvious to everyone but myself? I felt completely and utterly confused, but decided that Randy did deserve an answer.

I sighed. "Yes," I whispered.

"It's Eric Cannon, isn't it?" he said.

"Can you read my thoughts or something?" I exclaimed. "Because if you can, there's really some things you could clear up for me."

"No, Ellie, but, I had kind of guessed," he said. "I think most people have about you two. When I saw you the past few weeks, though, it seemed like you may have gotten over him. But obviously not. Eric's lucky to have you, Ellie."

"We're not really friends anymore," I said sadly. "We fought over- well, we fought."

"Well, whatever it was, I don't think it was worth breaking it off for," he replied. "But that's just my opinion."

"No, you're right, it wasn't worth it at all," I said.

"Then why don't you tell him that?" Randy said.

"Because it isn't that simple," I sighed. "It just isn't that simple."

"Sometimes the things that seem the hardest are often the simplest of problems," Randy said. "It just takes a lot to make the decision to do the right thing."

"Very literal," I said.

"Exactly."

-----------------------

Randy's parents took me back to my house. Randy did not seem to be hurt at all by the fact that I had pretty much blew him off this evening; he was probably the most understanding person I had met. Maybe even more understanding than my mom the time she forgave me for pouring her entire jar of loose change down the toilet, then flushing it and clogging the plumbing system for the entire building. (Our toilets spit back pennies for months.)

I stood in front of my house and sighed. My hair was perfect, my clothes were perfect, I had had the perfect guy to go on a date with- and yet, somehow, I had managed to ruin everything. I approached our front door and looked through at the living room to see if anyone was studying or reading there.

Kaylie had stayed. She was sitting on the couch up against the window with Deyton. But what I guess really shocked me- or maybe not exactly shocked, I had been predicting this for months- was that Deyton was kissing Kaylie. For what felt like the hundredth time tonight, I heaved in a sigh. Why was everyone so happy together? Everyone but me. And Eric, I guess.

Deyton and Kaylie pulled away, and just simply sat together, her head on his shoulder. They were made for each other, I thought. They were both equal amounts of weird and romantic, and somehow, they balanced each other out.

I opened the door and immediately headed up to my room. This was Deyton and Kaylie's moment, and I really didn't want to intrude. I peeked in my parents' open bedroom. They weren't there. It appeared as though everyone was downstairs. Good, I guess. Peace and quiet for me to do my homework.

The light in my parents' bathroom was on. This seemed strange; it was barely past nine, and my family stayed up until long past midnight on Friday nights (well, except Aunt Jazz, who went to bed at ten every night; she actually that early to bed early to rise junk). I looked into my parents' bathroom to see what was going on. The door was open.

My mom was sitting on the edge of the tub, her head hanging close to her chest. She was shaking slightly. I had never seen her look anything like this before. She was always a rather cool and calm person; she never seemed to worry or get angry. I was all of a sudden rather worried too.

"Mom?" I called. "What's wrong?"

She didn't respond. She was looking at something in her hand.

"Mom, you're worrying me…" I said. "What's wrong?"

Again, she didn't seem to hear me at all. I sat on the edge of the toilet. I was not planning on moving until I knew what was going on.

"Mom, come on, you're worrying me," I said urgently.

She took a huge inward sigh, just as I had before. "I…" she began, looking up at me. "I'm pregnant."

She was holding in her hand a pregnancy test, positive. I looked up at her. She laughed slightly, as if trying to find humor in the situation.

"I'm pregnant," she repeated, laughing.

My mind was utterly silent.

**A/N: I bet you weren't expecting that.**


	39. Deadly Secrets

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Deadly Secrets

I stared at my mother blankly, as if I could not possibly comprehend what she was saying. She looked as if she could barely believe it herself.

"Wow…" she sighed. "I don't believe this…"

My mind was beginning to run again. "Well, you always said you wanted another baby," I said. "Now we finally have enough room for one."

My mom was barely listening. "Just like last time…" she said.

"What?" I said. What about this situation could possibly be like last time? There was no last time!

She looked up at me, her eyes softening upon the sight of her first-born daughter. "I'm sorry, Ellie," she said, putting her hand on my knee. "I meant that just sitting here like this reminds me of the time I found out I was going to have you, is all."

I put my hand on top of my mom's. "I guess we're going to have eight people in our house now," I said. "That's a lot."

"Yes, it is," she replied, looking slightly worried. "We'll manage, Ellie. If I were to have another baby, I guess now is the time. You always said you wanted another sibling, and I always wanted one for you too. Now we finally have what we wanted. Whether this is the perfect time or not, I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

My mom squeezed my hand, and I squeezed it back. I had always asked for a younger sister or brother. Whenever I had mentioned it, my parents had always responded with the same answer: maybe someday. Now, I guess my "maybe someday" had turned into "yes, and soon."

I looked up as my dad passed the doorway. After noticing that my mom and I were sitting alone, he doubled back and stood in the doorway. Neither my mom nor I said anything.

"What's going on?" he asked, perplexed.

Neither of us responded.

He approached us, and looked at what was in my mom's hand. "Sam, what is this…" It wasn't a question. It was a realization.

My mom held up her positive test. "This is the next nine months of our lives, Danny," she said.

"Oh my…" My dad couldn't even finish his sentence in his disbelief.

"It's okay, daddy," I said. I took his hand in mine.

"Yeah, Ellie, I guess it is," he said.

-------------------

The last day of May was just like any other in Drogo High. Inside of my Spanish class, we were all being baked like enchiladas as sweltering heat poured through the window. But everyone was sweating in silence- it was the last day of school. My eyes were transfixed upon the clock, watching it slowly tick… tick… tick.

Two-thirty-three.

Two-thirty-four.

Two thirty-four and fifty-five seconds……

BRRRRIIINNNNNNNNNG! The bell set off, resounding off the classroom walls. I jumped at the sudden break of silence, but recovered quickly, grabbed my bag, and made a mad dash for the door.

Kaylie emerged from Geography class just down the hall, looking as if she were about to burst from joy. She dashed down the hallway against the flow of juniors attempting to make it to their lockers. She was shouting something, but I couldn't hear over the traffic.

"Last-day-of-school-oh-my-gosh-Ellie-do-you-know-what-this-means-oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh-oh-my-" he little voice squeaked in a higher pitch than usual.

"Well, I don't know what the last day of school means, but you talking like that certainly means that I'm going to go deaf," I responded.

Just at that moment, Deyton came flying into sight. "Last-day-of-school-Ellie-Kaylie-do-you-know-"

I cut him off. "Yes, I know what this means, Kaylie was already kind enough to treat me to a whole montage."

"Well, in that case, let's get going!" Deyton dashed over, grabbed Kaylie's hand, and began running down the steps. Laughing, I followed.

We burst out the front doors onto the school's lawn. The buses were parked outside. Now Kaylie, Deyton and I were all laughing and galloping, not caring how people were looking at us.

Now Deyton scooped Kaylie up into his arms, spinning her around as we danced towards the buses.

"Deyton!" Kaylie yelled playfully. "You're going to get both of us a detention!"

"How can they possibly give us a detention?" he said. "It's the last day of school!" But, sensing Kaylie's mindfulness of the rules, he merely kissed her on the cheek and put her down.

"Come on," she giggled. "The bus is going to leave without us."

We ran down towards the buses. My bookbag flapped at my side, and with a sudden realization I remembered that I had forgotten something.

"Crap!" I yelled. "I forgot to give back my Spanish book! I have to go put it back or they'll charge me for it!"

"But the bus-" Kaylie began. The engines of the huge machines started.

"I'll make it!" I yelled over my shoulder as I dashed back into the school. I sensed Kaylie and Deyton rolling their eyes at me.

The halls were empty but for small tumbleweeds of balled up paper. My legs carried me at cross-country speed through the hallways. All the lockers were open, waiting for books to be put in them again until next use; and, thankfully, all the doors were open as well. I ran into the Spanish room. It was empty, thankfully. I dropped my Expresate! Spanish 1 book unceremoniously on top of the others. The bus engines revved outside. I doubled my speed as I ran out the door.

I could hear my own panting as I ran through the empty halls. Come on, you can make it, I urged myself. It's just out those doors…

A hand grasped around my face. Suddenly, I was no longer moving a mile a minute, but was held tightly captive in someone's arms. I could no longer hear my own breath or anything at all, except for a soft voice in my ear…

"Come with me," a man's voice said; I vaguely recognized it.

I shook my head violently.

"I'm not going to hurt you," the voice said, dragging me backwards.

I shook even more violently, throwing my arms and legs into the mix, refusing to be dragged anywhere. My captor grunted with the effort. From what I could sense, he was not very large, but yet he kept dragging me.

Ghost powers, said a voice in my mind. This is what your training is for! I thought. But what if this captor wasn't a ghost? I would be revealing myself to the world… but would that matter? Reveal my secret, or die… I thought.

Well, there really wasn't much of a choice there.

The man had dragged me back into an office, dark. I closed my eyes, trying to forget my terror, and transformed into my ghost form. I immediately slipped from the man's hands, but someone had already shut the door and was guarding it. I couldn't make out who in the gloom.

I held up my hand. "Get out of my way," I said in a deadly whisper.

This time it was a woman's voice who answered."We're not quite ready for you to leave yet," she said.

"Move or I'll blast you away," I said fiercely.

"You may leave," the woman said, "after I have had my say. We have to talk to you, Ellie Phantom."

My hand lowered slightly in my shock. "How do you know my name? How do you know who I am?" I whimpered, suddenly very frightened.

The lights flickered on. The woman had her hand on the light switch and was leaning against the door. I gasped as I realized that the room was filled with people; vapor erupted from my mouth.

Ghosts.

"We need to have a word with you," the woman said.

It was the female counselor. I looked around; the male counselor was standing behind me, badly beaten from where I had struggled. In my terror, I didn't look at anyone else's face. I wheeled around to face the woman counselor again.

"I have been watching you for a long time, Ellie Fenton," she said. "You are a very talented ghost, just as your father."

"What does my father have to do with anything," I said.

"Well, he's the reason why you're here, isn't he? He's the source of your powers, right?"

"I'm not answering any questions," I said stubbornly.

"Good," the woman counselor said. "Because we're not here to ask questions."

"Then what am I here for? Why did you kidnap me?" I yelled.

A woman stepped out of the crowd of ghosts. I guessed that there was a little under twenty of them. She was strange-looking; she had blue hair that hung about like flames, and a black leather outfit similar to that of a rockstar. Suddenly, I recognized her. She was the lead singer in Kaylie's favorite band, Knights of Fire- I had seen the poster in her room a hundred times. What in the world was she doing here? As she stepped towards me, I realized that she had two children hanging onto her legs, peering at me fearfully.

"You're here because we need your help," she said. "You are the only one who can help us now."

I stared into her face even harder. I made another sudden realization- this was Ember, a ghost that I seen on my father's disc. Again, I peered around the room, and realized that I was not among strangers.

In the corner was the Lunch Lady, frail and hunched over; next to her, the Box Ghost, far more grown than the picture I had seen of him; an old woman and man, who strongly resembled a wrinkly Spectra and Bertrand; a man in a leather jacket and a woman with a similar one, whom I recognized as a more mature Johnny 13 and Kitty; a strange combination person, but I vaguely remembered the faces as that of Skulker and Technus; a man in pajamas, immediately recognizable as Klemper; and finally, standing behind Ember was the Fright Knight, with another child tugging at his armor.

"You're all people my dad knew…" I whispered to myself, but apparently everyone else heard too.

"That's right," said Spectra from the back. "Your father is not the only one to grow up and have children. He's not the only one to have a life after ghost hunting. We all grew up too."

I turned back to the woman counselor, still standing by the door. I could have been knocked over by a feather right then as I realized her extremely strong resemblance to Spectra and Bertrand; I looked at the male counselor, too, and sure enough, he too bore the same family resemblance.

"Ellie Phantom, please meet our children, Hugh and Guinevere," Bertrand said from next to Spectra.

"So you mean…" I began. I took a second look at everyone I had recognized. Next to the Box Ghost and Lunch Lady stood Boxed Lunch, whom I had already met before, and now realized the connection; Johnny 13 and Kitty stood protectively around a young girl of about eleven, dressed in rebel garb similar to their own; the children clinging to Ember and the Fright Knight resembled both of them, with flame-like hair; even Klemper had a small boy clinging to him in matching pajamas.

"Oh my gosh," I said, repeating Kaylie.

The little girl next to Johnny 13 stepped forward. "Get back here," he mother whispered. The little girl took no notice.

"I'm Ramsey," she said boldly. "You have to help us. You have to help my family."

Something about her voice clicked inside of my head. I wasn't sure what it was. I thought back over all of my ghost-related experiences (there really weren't as many as there seemed) and could not come up with anything. The little girl was still standing near me, looking into my puzzled face.

There must have been something about the look on my face that amused _her_, because in that moment she began to giggle slightly. It was a pleasant little laugh, soft, and yet different from anything I had heard before.

Or was it?

I had heard that laugh before. In my room. On the first day of school. She had laughed at me before- I had met this girl! She was the one who had laughed at my lobster comment! She was the reason I couldn't sleep in my room for days because I thought it was haunted!

"I've met you before…" I said to her.

Boxed Lunch piped up in the corner: "You've met a lot of us before. We came to find you."

"But… why?" I asked in complete disbelief.

"Because do you think that The Phantom stops at halfas? Do you think that he only terrorizes you and _your_ family? No! He is horrible to all of us, he hunts us all, and he despises us and wants the Ghost Zone to himself!" Technus proclaimed.

"Many of us had to come out here to escape him," Kitty said, once again clinging to her daughter.

"You're the only one who can help us now, you and your father are the only ones who can defeat him… we are… helpless against him," Guinevere said from over by the door.

"I don't know what I can do!" I replied. "I haven't been training for very long, I barely have powers, I couldn't stand a chance in a fight with a paper bag, let alone a full-grown well-trained angry vengeful ghost!"

"Please," Spectra begged. "Ghosts are not supposed to plead. Ghosts are supposed to fight. And we can no longer do that. We have been forced from our homes, our families put in danger, but then we found out about you, and we knew there was some kind of hope for us. Help us, Ellie. You are a ghost too."

I looked around. The normal eerie ghost glow had died from there eyes, only to be replaced with an empty glassiness I had never seen before… They had the echoes of a fallen idol, once so powerful, now so defenseless. They had been reduced to begging and pleading a fourteen-year-old girl whose father they resented because they could no longer fight for themselves.

I had to help them.

Maybe I would get hurt, maybe I would die, but at least I would be facing my fears head on and helping others, restoring peace… the nobility of the prospect scared me to my very core. I now had people depending on me. But I did have something on my side… I had the support of the ghosts, I had Clockwork's information, and I had my father's powers. Maybe that was all I needed.

"Okay," I said. "I will… try."

"You will win," Ramsey said with her eyes alight.

"I can only try," I repeated.

"Thank you," Ember said.

"I have to go," I said. My head was swimming in thought. "I have to get some things done…"

Silently, Guinevere opened the door. I walked out into the hallway; the same spot I had been grabbed. Before I could take any last looks, the door snapped shut behind me.

I opened up the front door. The schoolyard was completely empty, and all the cars in the parking lot were gone. There were only oil leaks where the buses had been. I sighed, and sat down on the front steps. The sky had turned a sulky gray. I put my head in my hands.

This was a lot of weight for a fourteen-year-old to carry. Was this how my father had felt?

I pulled my cell phone out of my backpack, not looking up. I didn't want to see anything anymore. I pushed my speed dial and called home. My dad picked up.

"Daddy," I said, miserable. "I missed the bus. Can you come get me?"

"Of course, Ellie," he said. "I'll be there in a few minutes."

I looked up again. Sometimes you have to look at what's in front of you instead of covering your eyes, I thought. And sometimes you have to share the load that you carry with someone else, my conscious whispered.

I thought of Deyton and Kaylie, realizing that they could no longer help me. This was something I had to do… but maybe there was another ghost I could share the weight upon my shoulders with.

_A/N: That was a really fun chapter to write! I made up all those pairings so long ago, I think it was last summer that I did it. This chapter is kind of bittersweet, though, because it's the beginning of the end... I only have six more chapters left, but we are definately getting somewhere. I've been planning these chapters for a really long time. So hopefully you'll enjoy them. The next chapter is called "The Phantoms". And... I'll just leave you with that._

_Always, _

_Rachel_


	40. The Phantoms

A/N: And now for the chapter you've all been waiting for (and been bugging me about since I started)...

Chapter 40

The Phantoms

I was completely silent on the ride home with my dad. Sensing my misery, he didn't try to engage in any talking either; I also assumed he had more on his mind as well. He didn't bother to ask why I had missed the bus. On some level, I think he already kind of knew why.

I rolled down my window, letting the hot summer air flow over my face and through my hair. I rested my head on top of my hand. All of a sudden I felt very tired; all I wanted to do was go home and sit somewhere cool and never come out.

The gravel on our driveway crackled under the tires of my dad's car. All the windows of the house were open; was the air conditioning _still_ broken? Sometimes I hated our crumbly old house. On bad days, it seemed as though it fell apart around you. It wasn't built to withstand heat, or rain, or snow, or ice, or thunder. In fact, it seemed to sag merely from its own weight. But I guess I knew how that felt.

My dad treaded inside with me dragging my feet behind him. It was just as hot inside as it was out, only the heat settled into every pore of the house and didn't move. There was no breeze and no escaping the heat. I could hear Dylan's pitiful little fan from upstairs as he attempted to keep cool.

"Who's here?" I asked my dad.

"I think it's only Dylan and Danielle," he replied. "Deyton and Kaylie went over to the Katz's when they found out that you were okay. Your mom and Aunt Jazz are at work."

"Oh," I said. All that information meant to me was that was no one around to talk to.

I opened up the door to the basement. Finally, a cool place where no one would bother me. "I'm going to go downstairs," I told my dad.

"Okay," he said, and paused. "Ellie?" he asked.

"Huh?" I replied.

"Why did you miss the bus today?"

I thought, and decided, as always, to only tell half the truth. "I was returning a book." I turned and fled down the basement stairs. I didn't bother to look and see my father's skeptical look; I knew it was there.

The basement greeted me with cool concrete walls and dusty floors. For some reason, the hard gray concrete with cracks in it and the uneven floors had grown on me. I had spent so much time down here doing my training that it had become a sort of escape in which no one else in the house (besides Deyton) would ever think to look for me. Particularly recently, when I had woken up in the middle of the night after dreaming horrible things about ghosts, I had just snuck down here and sat in front of the ghost portal. The coolness had always kept me awake as I 'kept guard'. For some reason, knowing that the ghost portal wasn't open was a relief for me. It had also served as a way to forget Eric many, many times.

So, once again, I sat down in front of the ghost portal. I crossed my legs and tucked them underneath of me. Goosebumps rose on my skin from contact with something so cold. I sighed, trying to let everything out of me. This time I was not watching the portal after a bad dream, but it certainly felt like I was. Certainly today's evens were analogous to a bad dream, I thought.

The brushed chrome on the ghost portal made an excellent mirror to see who was coming down the stairs. No one ever came down the stairs while I was in the basement, but I could hear the creak of the stairs behind me. I stared into the chrome to see who it was. I shouldn't have been surprised to see the characteristic black hair and thin figure of my father, but I was all the same.

I decided to wait for him to speak, but he merely stood behind me. He stuck his hands in his pockets and stared into the portal with me, a rather hard, dazed look on his face, as if he was trying to solve something that was bothering him.

"How come you're down here," he asked flatly, as if it wasn't even a question.

I shrugged, not even sure why I was here. Because I needed to know there weren't any ghosts? To figure out how to beat Dan Phantom? To forget that I myself was a ghost? So, I responded, "I think we both know why we're down here."

My dad sighed and sat down cross-legged beside me. "Yeah," he said. "I agree."

"Daddy," I said, turning to him, "I don't know what to do anymore..."

"Me neither, Ellie," he replied. "I guess neither of us knows what to do anymore except sit in front of a ghost portal."

We sat in silence for a few minutes, staring at the portal as if waiting for something to happen.

"I've been inside of it, you know," I whispered quietly, not looking at my dad.

"I know," he sighed.

"I thought you might," I mumbled. I stared even deeper into the shiny chrome, into my own reflection. "You know, I was so afraid of anyone finding out. I was so afraid when I found out who you were. I thought that everyone would judge me: ghost superhero's daughter, a ghost herself, not nearly as good… I only ever told Eric and Kaylie and Deyton. And only because Deyton begged. I was going to tell you so many times. Then I heard you telling Mom that you didn't want that life for me, and then I hurt Darius and I thought you would hate me for using my powers like that… Now all these ghosts are asking me to help them beat Dan Phantom. And I don't know what to do. I know what I have to do, but I have no clue how to get there. So I just come down here and sit… and wait for an answer to come to me. I wait for it to just jump out of the steel doors, and it never does, because no matter how hard I train, I'm still a failure."

I brought my knees up to my chest and hid my face, tears flowing hot and salty down my cheeks. I began to sob as the word rang in my head… failure, failure, failure.

My dad just sat there, watching me with sympathetic eyes. After a few moments, I took a deep shuddering breath and wiped my eyes on my hand. I turned and looked at my dad.

He was looking at me too. "Ellie," he said sternly. "You are not a failure. You never were a failure. And you never will be."

I looked at him in disbelief. "How can you be so sure?"

"Just because I know," he said. "I know, Ellie, because I am your father and I know you and I know myself. I know that you have never failed before and that I will never let you fail, and you will never let yourself fail."

I shook my head slightly, still not completely sold on the idea.

He looked away at the wall. "I was scared to tell people too. I only ever told your mom and Uncle Tucker… Aunt Jazz found out on her own. Eventually my parents, too, found out. They were the only people who ever knew about me besides other ghosts. I thought that everyone would judge me, too, because well, my parents were ghost hunters… and because my arch enemy was their old college friend, Vlad. It's not easy being a ghost, Ellie. I don't think either of us wanted it. But we're kind of stuck with it now. I'm so sorry I ever got you into this."

"Why are you sorry for something that isn't even your fault?" I asked, suddenly feeling much stronger.

He shook his head. "I feel responsible for you. I feel responsible for the things I got you into."

"But you never got me into anything," I said. "Everything that ever happened was beyond our control. My genes are not your fault. Dan Phantom is not your fault-"

"Yes he is," my dad said. "If I had never… it wouldn't have happened…"

"Clockwork sent me back in time and _you_ told me the story," I explained. "The way I heard everything, it was not your fault."

"Lily, sometimes you have no idea how convincing you can be," he laughed, using my pet name.

"I only wish I could convince my problems to go away," I said.

"Life would be a lot easier," my dad replied.

We bother sighed, and fell into silence once again. Suddenly, I felt the sandbags upon my shoulders lift; all the extra weight I had been carrying with me felt as if I wasn't the only one carrying it anymore. It seemed ages before either my dad or I spoke, but I was perfectly fine with it. It was not an awkward silence. We understood each other completely, and no longer needed words.

A thought popped into my head, reminding me that there still was some responsibility weighing me down. "What are we going to do about Dan Phantom?" I asked.

"We're going to take him down, just like we're supposed to," my dad said. "Eventually. We're going to train, we're going to gather more information, and then we're going to get him for everything he's done to us. And everyone else."

"He killed Vlad, didn't he," I asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yes," he responded. "He killed Vlad. He killed Valerie, too. He tried to kill Darius, and he tried to kill me. But what he really wants is you, Ellie. You are the mark of the humane part of him he left behind. You have to be careful."

"That's what Aunt Dani told me," I smiled.

"I knew she had to be involved somehow in this," he laughed, shaking his head. "She always did do things her own way, no matter what I or anyone else said."

I stared at the portal again. "Will we be okay?" I asked, as if my dad knew the answer.

"Yes," he said firmly, as if he could see the future. He put his arm around me and held me like he did when I was little. "We're going to be fine, Lily. Just fine."

A/N: I have to say, that's probably one of my favorite chapters to write, although it was really difficult. The next chapter, though, is the beginning of the end... it should be up soon enough. I'm not going to give you the title because it would give away way too much. Until next update...

always,

R.D.


	41. Captured

_A/N: It's the beginning of the end, everybody..._

Chapter Forty-One

Captured

The next morning I woke up feeling much lighter and happier than I had felt in months. I knew that I still had problems, but the solutions seemed a lot clearer now that I wasn't the only one looking for them. Still nagging at the back of my mind was the thought of Eric- whom I still had not entirely forgiven for blaming me- but I considered that to be the least of my issues. I had ghosts to fight, and that made me feel important. The summer stretched wide and open before me, full or opportunities to improve my skills with the help of my great dad. I honestly could not think of much better.

I felt like I floated down the stairs as I went down to breakfast. The air conditioning had been fixed last night; Deyton had gone outside and kicked it in anger only to have it shudder back on. Everyone was amazed that it had worked. Now the house was a pleasant seventy degrees instead of a humid ninety-five.

It was Saturday, and most of my family was home, all seated around the kitchen table nibbling at my mom's summertime fruit salad. Aunt Jazz had the newspaper spread out in front of her with her reading glasses balanced on the edge of her nose. She was reading the housing listings.

"Why are you looking at houses?" I asked her.

"Oh," she sighed, "I was just thinking that Dylan, Deyton, Danielle and I can't live here forever, especially with your mom having a baby. I finally found a good job at a psychiatry firm nearby. We might be able to afford a house in town now."

I looked around the table at my cousins. Dylan was looking at a catalog with Danielle and Deyton was trying to play Grand Theft Auto on his Playstation Portable and eat breakfast at the same time. As much as I found my cousins to be annoying at times, they had become closer than just relatives: they were my brothers and sister, and my Aunt was like a second mom. How could they leave?

"But I don't want you to go," I said to Aunt Jazz.

"Oh, sweetie, don't even give it a second thought," she said. "It won't be for a long time. And when the time comes, we'll be staying in Specterton. Don't you worry your little head one second about it."

I nodded. My aunt was hardly ever that sweet, but something in her words made me believe her.

I realized that someone wasn't there. I looked at my mom. "Where's Daddy?" I asked.

She thought for a moment. "I'm not quite sure," she said. "I haven't seen him since I woke up. I think he just went out or something, Ellie; I'm sure he'll be back soon."

I nodded, and shoveled fruit salad into a bowl for myself.

------------------

Later, I became bored. There wasn't much to do around the house. My mom was sitting on the couch, feeling rather nauseous; having a second child was bringing morning sickness on her quick. I had a feeling my dad hadn't told her about the whole ghost thing yet, but on some level, I think she knew anyway. I couldn't go outside either; it was pouring rain. Rain pounded against the windows like an angry guest trying to get in and I even heard the rumble of thunder off in the mountains. It seemed like a rather lazy day, but my skin was crawling. I had to do something to keep myself occupied.

So, I took my mom's computer (not like she would be using it in her current state) and went up to my room. I plugged the socket of the charger into the wall and placed the laptop on my bed. Laying completely flat upon my stomach, I turning on the computer and logged on under my name. My happy summery background of a field of tulips popped up. I had taken that picture a few months back of a field that I saw on my way home from school.

AIM immediately popped up. I signed in. Nobody was on, but after a few seconds, a window came up at the bottom accompanied by the sound of an opening door. I looked at the name.

Eric.

I stared at the screen name until it faded away. Not thinking of my actions at all, I clicked on the name, and an instant message box magically appeared.

To: Cannonball808, From: FelinePhantom24, read the top. Eric's ridiculous little squawking parrot icon appeared. I had always thought that it was silly, but Eric had refused to change it. It reminded him of his own bird that he had, Newton. Eric loved Newton, and I guess this little icon was just a little way to remind himself how much he cared about that bird.

My heart panged. I had forgotten a lot of the stupid little things Eric and I used to talk about; now all those things were gone, and I hardly talked to anyone anymore, even Kaylie. I missed all the stuff Eric and I used to do, like play chess (even thought Eric always won) or make ridiculous foods when we were bored (Eric's mom always got mad that we were wasting food) or talk on AIM (even though we had nothing to say). I missed Eric.

Nonetheless, I couldn't talk to him right now. I just couldn't. I closed the chat window, and reached under my bed for my dad's ghost files. Maybe taking a second look at Dan Phantom's file wouldn't be such a bad idea. Besides, I had to update all the files anyway now that I knew of all the new ghosts that had appeared since my father's time.

I flicked through each file until I came to Dan Phantom's. Before I could even begin to study the photograph that accompanied the description, a box popped up in the middle of the screen. I checked, but I hadn't pressed any buttons that I wasn't supposed to.

Text started to appear in the box, letter by letter. Within a moment, a message had appeared.

'Hello, Ellie Phantom.'

My breath froze in my throat. It wasn't an instant message. Someone was speaking to me through the computer. I struck a key; I couldn't say anything back. More letters began to appear.

'I see you are doing some research on me. What a smart little girl you are.'

Dan Phantom. Somehow he was communicating through my computer. I couldn't breath, and I couldn't move; I couldn't do anything but watch the message appear on the screen.

'But you're not much without your father, are you? It's a shame you have to learn from such a poor teacher. His ideals are soft, and his humanity makes him weak, just as it does you. The apple does not fall far from the tree, Ellie.'

Heat boiled in me at the mention of my father. He was insulting him… my father was an excellent man, no matter what this conniving ghost said.

'Enough talk about your father's ideas, though, I know that you are set in your ways of good… but while we are on the subject of Danny Phantom, where is he? Haven't you wondered yet today?'

I felt as though my entire body had imploded. Daddy wasn't around, and Dan Phantom knew where he was. He was watching us; he must have been watching us the whole time.

'Well, I should probably leave you to figure out where your father is on your own, but that would never do. I know that you abide by what is _fair_, so I will humor you. I will tell you that your father is having a wonderful time here with me in the ghost zone… you Fentons fall into traps so easily. Maybe you should come and get him. Maybe you shouldn't. But, either way, he'll be here… I will just leave you to your choice.'

I wasn't sure what to do. The last two words appeared on the screen.

'Choose wisely.'

Choose wisely? _Choose wisely?_ How could I choose wisely when my father has been kidnapped! I didn't know what to do, or what to say, or even where to go… This had to be the most horrible thing I had gotten myself into yet, and there was no one to help me.

Or was there?

"Deyton!" I yelled, scrambling off my bed. I ran through the hallway. "Deyton! Deyton!" I looked in his room, and he wasn't there. I ran downstairs. "Deyton!" He was nowhere to be seen.

My mom was still on the couch when I dashed into the room. "Honey, what's wrong?" she said wearily.

"Nothing," I said unconvincingly, my eyes darting around the room. "Have you seen Deyton?"

"I think he went over to Kaylie's to return one of her books…" she began, but I was already gone after 'Kaylie's.'

I ran out the front door and onto the front steps. Rain pattered on my head, and lightening struck somewhere across town. "Deyton!" I screamed again, but my voice was lost in a huge clap of thunder.

I could barely see as I ran across the lawn, the rain struck my eyes and blinded me. The grass was cold and wet beneath my bare feet. My soaked hair clung to the back of my neck and my tee shirt at the same time. A streak of lightening cracked above me again.

"Kaylie!" I yelled. "Deyton!"

I ran up Kaylie's gravel driveway, the sharp stones cutting into my feet. I dashed up the stairs to her front door and began banging on it with my fists.

"Kaylie! Kaylie, open the DOOR!"

The door swung open, revealing Eli, Kaylie's older brother. He looked confused at the wet, barefoot girl in a panic on his doorstep.

"Eli, I need Kaylie and Deyton," I said, not bothering to explain.

Sensing the urgency, Eli merely merely said, "Okay," and called for his sister. When she responded, "One minute," I decided that I couldn't wait one more minute. My dad was in the clutches of a villain _now_. It couldn't wait.

"**KAYLIE!!!**" I screamed at the top of my voice. Eli looked at me, shocked and afraid. I thanked the universe for the fact that Kaylie's parents weren't home.

Kaylie's head appeared at the top of stairs, as did Deyton's. I looked at them desperately, hoping they would understand what I meant without having to say anything.

"Oh my gosh, Ellie!" Kaylie said. "You're soaking wet! What the heck are you doing out there?"

"He's… he's…" I didn't know what to say with Eli there. "He's back."

Deyton and Kaylie drew in a sharp breath. Both dashed down the stairs and into the foyer. Kaylie put on her rain jacket, and handed Deyton his.

"Eli," she said seriously to her brother. "Tell Mom and Dad that I'm at Ellie's." She grabbed Deyton's hand and stepped out onto the doorstep with me.

Eli recovered from the shock slightly. "Will you be home for dinner?" he asked his sister, as we began to head across the lawn.

"No!" Kaylie yelled over her shoulder.

I began to run across that yard again, and Deyton and Kaylie picked up speed behind me, their raincoats swishing along with them.

"What do you mean, he's back?" Deyton panted behind me.

"Dan Phantom's back! And he had my dad!" I said, and began to slow down, now power-walking across the lawn up to my house.

Deyton stopped in his tracks. "He has Uncle Danny?"

I spun around. "Yes."

"How do you know?" Kaylie asked over another clap of thunder.

"Because," I said, my voice cracking under pressure, "Dan Phantom infected my mom's computer. He told me that he had my dad, and… he said for me to choose wisely whether I should come help my dad or not."

Kaylie and Deyton looked at each other, worried. "You're not actually thinking of going after Dan Phantom, are you?" Kaylie asked.

I put my hands to my head and pulled at my soaked hair in frustration. Water cascaded down my bent as I bent forward and groaned. I looked back up at my friends, determined. "What other choice do I have?"

Neither answered.

"See? I have no other choice," I repeated. "Dan Phantom may have said it was my choice, but it's not a choice at all. It's either go after Dan Phantom myself, or let my dad rot with him and then have to explain to my mom why she has no husband. And lose him forever. So you whether you help me or not, that's _your_ choice, but I am going after Dan Phantom no matter what."

"We're with you, Ellie," Deyton said. "It's just- this is a big thing, going after Dan Phantom. We don't even know where he is."

I turned around and started marching towards the house again. "We'll find him, alright," I said. "He wants us to find him. But first, we need to prepare."

"How exactly are we supposed to prepare?" Kaylie asked.

I slipped silently through the front door so as not to wake my mom, who was asleep on the couch with her hand on her stomach mumbling to herself. I held my finger up to my lips to indicate that this was supposed to be a secret operation.

"We're going to prepare by seeing what my dad has stored about Dan Phantom," I whispered. "I never got to get a real good look at what was in my dad's ghost box up in the attic. I have a feeling he might have kept something up there. When I go into the ghost zone, I'll see if I can find Clockwork too so I can ask him more questions. Don't worry," I said at the look on Kaylie's face, "I'll be fine."

Slowly, we made our way up two flights of stairs to the attic so as not to make much noise. I didn't want anyone to know what I was up to. Finally, we were in the dusty old attic. Rain drops dripped from the roof into buckets we had placed there during the last thunderstorm. Thunder clapped again and the house shook. As I said, this house isn't built for anything.

"Let's get out of here as soon as we can," Deyton said, feeling the floor vibrate from the thunder. He held Kaylie tightly around the waist; whether it was to comfort her or him though, I couldn't tell.

I took a moment to sift through the boxes and cough at the dust before finding the box I needed. It said "Ghost Crap," so I was sure. I lifted it up. "Come on," I whispered to my friends. We returned downstairs and into the basement.

Everyone crowded around as I set the box on the table.

"What's in there that we could use?" Kaylie asked.

I flicked wet hair back from my face, spraying Deyton with water. "I don't know," I said. "Let's find out."

"Wait," Deyton said. "Is there any way you could dry off and stop spraying me with water?"

I thought for a moment, then remembered that I was a ghost. "Duh," I said to myself. Quickly, I turned intangible, and all the water dripping from me puddled on the floor.

"Well, I guess standing in a puddle is better than being squirted in the face," Deyton mumbled.

"Are we ready to start this or not?" I asked Kaylie and Deyton, giving hard looks to both of them.

"Yes, Ellie, just open the box," Kaylie said.

I sighed, and opened up the dusty old box.

Slowly, I lifted up several items and put them on the table. I wasn't exactly sure what everything was, but for some reason I thought it might help us.

"I think these are used for communication," Kaylie said, fingering what appeared to be two small microphones.

"I think you're right, Kaylie," I said. There were two sets of small earpieces that had microphones attached.

I stuck two of the earpieces in my own ears, and then put the other two in Kaylie's. I hit the on switch on both.

"Kaylie, can you hear me?" I asked.

"Loud and clear," she said. "Wow, these are really cool."

"Good," I said to myself, beginning to formulate a plan. "What else do we have?"

"Just some kind of camera, it looks like," Kaylie said.

I picked it up. It was a small camera, just small enough to fit behind someone's ear. I put it behind mine. "Where does it transmit to?" I asked.

"Probably this," Deyton said. He held up a small device that looked similar to a USB drive. "Probably plugs into a computer or something."

"Wait," I said, remembering something. "I still have the palm pilot Uncle Tucker gave me for Christmas. We should be able to plug the transmitter into it so that I can go into the ghost zone and you can tell me where I am with my dad's map. And I can talk to you through the earphones."

"Best idea we've got," Kaylie shrugged.

I ran upstairs quietly and grabbed my palm pilot and my map. As quickly as I could, I ran back downstairs. I stole a fast look at the grandfather clock in the hallway. It was one thirty- about forty-five minutes since I had found out about my dad. Who knows how long he had been gone before that. Time was wasting away.

I handed my palm pilot to Kaylie and the map of the ghost zone to Deyton once I was back in the basement. "Kaylie, you're going to watch on the palm pilot and tell Deyton what you see. He's going to look on the map and tell you where I am. You'll both have an earphone so that I can talk to you. And while you're doing all this, you're going to sift through the rest of the box and see if you can find anything that can help me beat Dan Phantom. Information. Anything. I can't do this alone."

"Okay," both agreed. Kaylie handed one of the earphones to Deyton, who spread the map across the table. Kaylie plugged the transmitter into the palm pilot and turned it on. I transformed into my ghost form.

"Oh my gosh, Ellie, this software is really complicated," Kaylie said, trying to manage it with the stylus. "I know some stuff about computers, but you need a true technogeek to get this."

"Well, you'll just have to make due, Kaylie, there's really no other way," I said sadly.

"Not exactly," Deyton interjected, looking up from the map. "You know who's good with computers, Ellie."

"We don't exactly have time to call Uncle Tucker, Deyton!" I exclaimed, frustrated.

"I don't mean him, although he would be a great help," he said. "I mean Eric. He's great with computers. I mean, he's in the computer club. He could definitely figure this out."

I stayed in stony silence, giving Deyton a cold stare. How dare anyone bring up Eric at a time like this!

"Deyton's right, Ellie," Kaylie said. "You have to put away your differences with Eric sometime. And we need his help."

I thought for another moment, then finally looked up at my friends. "No," I said. "No. Eric's not helping."

Kaylie and Deyton looked at me, sad. I couldn't even make up with Eric if my life depended on it. I thought back to what he said to me when we were fighting: that I always had to have things my way, that I was way too obsessed with ghosts. If he was sick of ghosts, then he could just stay home. I'll fight my own battles.

"I'm going," I said. I opened the ghost portal.

"But Ellie-" Kaylie began.

"Just wish me luck," I said desperately. I turned all the gadgets on my head on.

"Ellie, don't-" Deyton started.

"Please, guys," I whispered. "Just help me."

"Good luck," Kaylie mumbled, leaning on Deyton. Neither wanted to see me go.

"Be careful, Elle," Deyton said, holding Kaylie.

"I will be," I said, and stepped into the green depths of the portal.

The swirling green mist encircled me. "You seeing what I am?" I asked Kaylie.

"Yep, just as creepy as before," she responded. "I still can't get the hang of this video thing, though… Any landmarks in sight that we can look up?"

"No, not—" I started, and then immediately stopped as something came up around me.

Huge entrails of rope surrounded me. The glowed green. I screamed out into the ghost zone, and struggled against the straps, sending ectoblasts every which way.

"Ellie! Ellie! What's going on?" said Kaylie's panicked voice at the other end of the line.

"HELLLLLLPPP!" I screamed, knowing that no one was there to help me. I was completely alone now.

"Tut, tut, tut, little ghost girl," said a cold, hard voice rising out of the mist. I stopped struggling in my shock as Dan Phantom- huge, ominous, and cold- rose out of the green depths of the ghost zone. "You aren't getting out of there anytime soon. I told you that you Fentons fall into traps too easily."

I gulped, trying to summon the courage to speak. "What have you done with my dad?" I said.

"You'll find that out soon enough, Ellie Phantom," Dan Phantom said, staring into my eyes. His were full of malice, and I felt the dry iciness of his gaze penetrate my skin and freeze me to my very core.

------------------

Little did I know that at that exact point in time when I thought my father had been kidnapped he was really applying for a job at an air and space corporation based in Pennsylvania, not far from our house. He never told anyone because he wanted it to be a surprise; he planned to make a better home for my mom and I once the baby came. But, of course, I didn't know that, lying in that horrible net in Dan Phantom's grasp.

_A/N: I really hoped you enjoyed that. I have been planning and planning that chapter for a long, LONG time. The next chapter is "Fire and Ice". The name isn't too original, but it fits the chapter perfectly. You'll see why soon enough. Until next update..._

_Always,_

_R.D._


	42. Fire and Ice

_A/N: I hope you really enjoy the chapter! And just to refresh my disclaimer, I don't own anything you recognize!_

Chapter Forty-Two

Fire and Ice

Dan Phantom looked at me and laughed. He found my situation highly amusing, apparently; he had not said a word to me for the last ten minutes but had laughed at me repeatedly. He was quite satisfied with what he had done, and it was sickening to watch his glee as I struggled.

And yet, besides capturing me in a net, he had done nothing to harm me. All he seemed to want to do at this point was instill fear (which he was doing quite well). Every time he turned around I thought he was going to strike me down. But he never did. It was almost as if he was waiting for something.

He had lied to me. I knew that now. He had never had my dad. It was all a ploy to get me into the ghost zone where I was unprotected, and I had fallen for everything. I had believed everything that he had told me, and now I was completely vulnerable. Stupid, stupid, I told myself. Failure, failure, failure.

I reached up to my ear. I had lost my earpiece that allowed me to keep contact with Deyton and Kaylie. The camera, though, was still transmitting. They could now see me (and possibly hear me, I didn't know if the camera had a microphone in it or not) but I could no longer talk back to them. And even if I could, what would I say? They couldn't possibly come and get me. It would cost them both their lives.

Five minutes later, still nothing was happening. "What are you waiting for?" I asked Dan Phantom, trying to sound defiant.

"You'll see, soon enough," he responded.  
I watched the spot where the portal had opened, so far away now. It seemed as though that was what Dan Phantom was waiting for; something to come out of the portal. I found myself not wanting the door to open.

"Why did you trap me?" I asked a few minutes later, trying to find out some kind of reason why I was here. All I received was another cold laugh in return.

Several minutes later, to the point where it was getting ridiculous how long I had been sitting in the net, the portal opened. I drew in a sharp breath; even in the green mist, I could make out the form approaching now anywhere.

Dad.

"Ellie!" he cried out worriedly. Why was he yelling? Didn't he know that Dan Phantom had me? He was only drawing attention to himself.

For a moment, I nearly called back to him. All I wanted was for my dad to come and pick me up and take me home so that everything could be better; I knew that the situation was not so simple, but I wished anyway. I was about to call back, "Daddy!", but then I saw the look on my captor's face. It was one of pure hunger, of a lion looking upon his prey. He _wanted_ me to call out. He wanted my dad to come over so he could capture him to. I wasn't about to call my dad over right into a trap.

_"Ellie!"_ my dad called louder in desperation. My heart broke at the sound of the horror in his voice. He was just as scared as I was. Deyton and Kaylie must have told him what was going on. He slowly approached, and finally, he saw us.

His eyes grew wide in terror at the sight of me, disheveled and helpless, captured. But what must have really made him mad was Dan Phantom, standing coolly and calmly next to me.

"Let her go, Phantom," he said to his enemy in a deadly whisper.

Dan Phantom took a step towards my dad, toying with him. My dad took a defensive stance, holding his hands out in front of him in case of an attack. "Now, if I let her go, then it just wouldn't be as fun," Phantom sneered. He turned back around and paced past me, savoring the conversation. "Besides, you wouldn't want me to have to hurt the little girl, now would you?"

"Don't make me hurt you," Dad replied.

Dan Phantom spun around, fire blazing behind his eyes. "Like you haven't done enough damage already!" he shouted at my father. "Like you didn't make every waking moment of my life a living hell for the past twenty-three years! I'll tell you what," he continued, "I'm going to show you what it feels like to be trapped in a thermos; I'm going to show you what it's like to lose everything."

My dad stared at Dan Phantom with burning rage.

"But I will spare your daughter," he said, gesturing to me. "She can stay here with me; I'm sure that she will make an excellent servant under my new world order."

"Drop the charade," Dad said. "You're not making it out of here alive."

"Oh, quite the contrary," the ghost laughed. "I believe that it is you who will not make it out of here alive."

With those last words, Dan Phantom held out his arm, and a blast of energy shot outwards; my dad was knocked backwards off his guard and was now suspended in midair, paralyzed. Phantom walked over to him, keeping him suspended. It looked as though he couldn't breathe. My fists grasped the side of the net, my nails digging into the ghostly rope. My teeth clenched as my father appeared to try and struggle to regain his breath.

"You are the bottommost rung of the ghost ladder," he said to my dad's face. "You disgust me, with your family and your wife and your good and evil. You aren't even fit to walk the ghost zone. You're barely good enough to walk earth."

Suddenly, Dan Phantom dropped his hand and the energy ray holding my father was broken. He fell from the sky and sprawled onto the ground. I heard him as he gasped for breath.

"Daddy…" I whimpered. He looked up at me, and I could see how scared he was. But he wasn't just scared- he was determined, too. We're going to make it out of here, his face said. We're going to make it out of here no matter what.

"Shut up," Phantom yelled at me, pushing at the net.

"No," I said.

Again, he laughed at me. "You think you can fight," he scoffed. "You've never even been in a real battle. You've never fought anyone. You're worse than your father."

"Shut up," I said, challenging him.

"You think this is a game?" he said. "Well, let's play."

He turned back to my father, about to paralyze him again, but this time Dad was ready. He shot an ice ray at Dan Phantom, who warded it off with a shield conjured up with a flick of his wrist. Dad continued to shoot ray after ray, but was blocked every time.

"Getting tired yet?" Phantom asked. My dad answered with a look on contempt. He stood over Dad, looking down upon him. Dad shot out an ecto-blast, but again it was blocked.

"You can't hold up forever," he said.

"Neither can you, apparently," Phantom responded at my panting father.

Dad aimed a careful punch and made contact with Dan Phantom's jaw. The fight was now full on- in a series of moves I couldn't have even imagined, my dad and his enemy dueled across the Ghost Zone. I had never seen anything like it. Dad continuously tried to freeze Phantom, who ducked and dodged with ability, then fought him back with blasts of his own. I had never seen such a display of ice powers before- actually, I had never seen ice powers before at all. Dan Phantom pushed Dad back, knocking him with ray after ray; then, just when I thought we might lose, Dad used the ghostly wail. I had to cover my ears, and the net swung violently. All the while this was going on, I searched desperately for a way out of my prison.

The net was closed tightly at the top. I scrambled up the sides to see if I could somehow reach out and untie myself, but my hand couldn't reach through, no matter how small I made it; the net was impermeable. I swung myself around slightly to see if the bindings would break, again to no avail. Finally, I realized the only option left was for me to somehow blast myself out. But what if it backfired? This net was made to trap ghosts; my blast could easily backfire and hit me.

I looked up again when I heard the sound of bated breath. Dan Phantom had his back to me, and was holding my father around the neck in a death grip. He was struggling desperately to breathe, and his face was turning deadly pale. His limbs kicked back and forth as he tried to free himself, and his eyes glowed bright with fear. He was looking right at me.

If I was going to do anything, I had to do it now.

I pushed myself into the far side of the net and held my hands out in front of me. If this blast was going to backfire, I wanted to be as far away as possible. Just as I did this, I heard the most horrible noise- silence, as my father stopped breathing, then a thud as Dan Phantom dropped him onto the floor. I inhaled deeply, summoning all my energy, and looked directly at Dan Phantom. He turned to face me, my father slumped next to him, and gave me another cold, hard cackle.

I concentrated every bit of will I had within me, and aimed right into the side of the net.

Fire erupted from my hands, flames swarming from my hands into the net; the sides incinerating, leaving a great gaping hole, and continued on towards Dan Phantom. He was knocked backwards, hands covering his face. The net under me gave way, weakened by the flames, and I fell to the ground with a sickening thud, hands still held out in front me, fire glowing. And although the flames twisted around my palms and wrists, I felt nothing more than a warm, tingling sensation. I imagined it was similar to what my dad felt with his ice powers.

I stopped and looked at my hands. They looked completely normal, with no trace of any kind of burn. I then looked up; the last traces of the net were still smoldering around me. I felt up to the camera, and amazingly, it was still transmitting. My dad lay several yards away from me, an unmoving mass, and a couple feet from him lay Dan Phantom, curled into a protective ball from the flames and also unmoving.

Slowly, I began to crawl towards my father. I almost didn't want to reach him; he couldn't be dead if I didn't know that he was dead. I pulled my legs underneath me as I reached him, and took his hand in mine. It was still warm.

"Daddy," I whispered, clinging to his hand harder. "Daddy, please wake up."

I turned his face towards me. I couldn't hear a single breath, and his chest remained immobile. I couldn't feel his pulse in my hand.

"Daddy!" I screamed, on the verge of tears. "You have to wake up! Wake up!" I tapped his face, but his head merely lolled onto its side.

"He won't be waking up now," Dan Phantom's cold voice said behind me. I looked up; long burns snaked up his arms and face, and his once flawless uniform was singed and broken. He spoke to me again, his voice filled with hate. "You and your father think you're so great, with your fantastic powers; but in the end, you are both just groveling beggars."

I held up a hand to strike him down, but he grabbed my forearm and twisted until I shrieked out loud in pain. I clutched my father harder; now we were going to die together. Dan Phantom aimed right at my father and I, deadly close. He couldn't miss us now. We were going to die. I closed my eyes, and thought of Kaylie and Deyton, who had tried to help me; I thought of Eric, whom I never had a chance to tell I loved him; I thought of my mom, pregnant and completely unknowing of my powers; I thought of my cousins and aunt, who had taken such good care of me; and I thought of my dad, who died trying to save me in my stupidity. It was all my fault.

"Goodbye, Phantoms," Dan Phantom's cold voice said from nearby.

"Get away from them," said another, unexpected, but familiar voice. "Let them go, Phantom, or I'll kill you right now."

My eyes snapped open. Dan Phantom had turned around to face his aggressor. I looked at the man behind Phantom, who had him within aim of his ghostly fist. Shocked, I realized I was looking into the face of Darius Masters.

_A/N: I hate to say this again, but I bet you weren't expecting that._

_And just to keep you guessing even more than the end of this chapter did, I'm not going to tell you the name of the next chapter (mostly because it doesn't have a name yet)._

_Always,_

_Rach_


	43. Homecoming

_A/N: Well, here you go! I know this was quick, but I am very, very excited about the ending. There are only two more chapters after this, plus an epilouge and some disclaimers._

Chapter Forty-Three

Homecoming

"Darius?" I asked, confused. He took no notice of me.

"Let them go," he said to Dan Phantom, his sparkling with vengeance.

"If it isn't the great Darius Masters, how nice of you to join us," Dan Phantom said, lowering his hand slightly from my dad and I and turning to Darius. "Still mourning you dead father?"

I looked back to my own father, now almost lifeless. A single tear streamed down my face; I couldn't even think of what to say. I held his hand up to my chest, near my heart. I didn't sob, but merely looked into his face, so familiar.

"I'm sorry, Daddy…" I whispered, barely audible.

Suddenly, at the sound of my words, my father drew in a deep, shuddering, life-giving breath. I felt the pulse return to his hand, and his chest rose and fell as he breathed. I could see bruises started to form around his neck where Dan Phantom had choked him. His eyes snapped open, greeting me with their soft blue color.

The corners of his mouth turned upward into a slight smile. "Ellie," he said hoarsely and quietly, squeezing my hand back. I grinned back, completely speechless.

"If you want to get out of here alive, you'll back off right now," I heard Darius's voice say behind me. I turned to look at him and Dan Phantom, and my dad rolled his head onto the side so that he could see them.

"Never," Dan Phantom responded. "You are all going down. You will never see the light of day again."

"You're outnumbered!" Darius shouted.

"Three pathetic half ghosts? I could kill you all with a mere flick of my wrist!" he responded. "Besides, there are only two of you now, Masters."

"Don't think so much of yourself," my dad said, pushing himself to his feet.

"Dad, don't…" I whispered. He had nearly been killed- I didn't want him out there fighting again.

"Stay back, Ellie," he said to me. "If you want to get either Darius or Ellie, you'll have to go through me first, Phantom."

"You are your heroics," Phantom said. "You can barely stand."

My dad shot a warning ecto-blast at Dan Phantom, who barely dodged it. He then lunged at my father, who had no time to react. But luckily, I did.

I stepped in front of my dad, my hand held out in front of me. There was a small dancing, glittering flame in my hand, bright blue-ish green. Dan Phantom stopped at the sight of the fire; he was still reminded of its pain from the burns on his body.

"Your fire power won't stop me," he said.

"Then just try and pass me," I dared. For a moment, we stared at each other, each daring the other to make the first move. Then, suddenly, Dan Phantom shot a blast at Darius- a surprise attack. The blast hit him square in the chest, knocking him backward. Quickly, Darius regained his composure and faced his attacker. They were now facing each other.

Dan Phantom shot another blast at Darius, who rebounded it back. They battled across the Ghost Zone into the mist until Darius was trapped in a corner. My dad and I dashed over to help. Phantom was aiming a deadly blow at Darius's head.

"Hey, Phantom!" I shouted, doing anything to draw his attention away from Darius. I quickly shot a blow of fire at him. He blocked some of it, but some snaked down his arms, leaving him vulnerable to my dad's ice attack from the side. Slowly but surely, Darius, my dad, and I were backing Dan Phantom into a corner.

But, of course, just when we thought we were making progress, Dan Phantom had a trick up his sleeve. He multiplied himself times ten and attacked us from all sides; I ducked to the ground, but I could still feel the blasts grazing the top of my head. Dan Phantom then morphed back into one and cackled coldly at us.

I had an idea. "Darius, quick, get behind us and cover your ears!" I said, and Darius dashed behind my dad and I. Then, I opened my mouth, and let out the biggest scream I could possibly muster. My father joined in, and together the Ghostly Wail was heard all throughout the Ghost Zone. Behind me, Darius clutched his ears as tight as he could.

My plan worked; Dan Phantom was caught off guard and toppled backwards. The four of us advanced on him, and held out our hands, ready to strike him down if he dared to attack. He opened his eyes and looked up at us, realizing he was trapped.

"It's over, Phantom," Dad said.

"Your dead," said Darius. "Say goodbye to your plans for a new world order."

Dan Phantom looked up at us. The entire time I had seen him, he had never, ever looked scared. But now as I stared down at him, I could see the terror in his face. It was the same look I had seen my father have, and the same look I had had. He was genuinely scared.

"Goodbye," Darius said, about to kill Dan Phantom.

"Wait," I interjected. "We can't kill him."

Everyone looked at me in shock, even Dan Phantom. "What are you talking about, Ellie? This man tried to kill us!" Dad said.

"So should we kill him? Didn't we fight this entire battle to prove that we were above killing someone for vengeance? And now we're just going to stoop to his level?" I explained. "He said that the worst years of his life were spent in the thermos. Sitting in there was worse than death, because he was alone with his thoughts. Let's lock him in the thermos- let's leave him where he's supposed to be. Alone."

My dad and Darius looked at each other, and nodded in agreement. My dad withdrew a thermos.

"I'm not doing this because I like you or have any kind of mercy for you," I said. "But I'm going to show you that I am the better person here, no matter what you think of me. Goodbye, Phantom. See you never."

Without saying anything, Dan Phantom was quickly sucked into the thermos. I let out a deep sigh. It was over.

"I guess we should give that back to Clockwork," I said, gesturing to the thermos.

"I'll take it back," Darius said. "You guys have family to get back to."

"I'm sorry, Darius," I said. "I'm sorry he killed your father."

"What's done is done," he replied. "I've learned now that there's nothing I can do about it. I'm sorry, too, Ellie. I considered you a villain, when I should have considered you an ally. My father was not a perfect man; he taught me things I shouldn't have learned or listened too. Only now do I realize how wrong I was to practice what he said."

"Good luck, Darius," my dad said.

"To you, too," he responded. "Goodbye, Fentons." And with that, he walked off into the green mist of the ghost zone towards Clockwork's tower.

I never saw Darius Masters again.

My dad and I turned to each other. "I'm sorry to you too, Dad," I said. "It was all my fault that this whole thing happened. If I hadn't been so stupid, you wouldn't have nearly died."

"Ellie, things would've ended up the same way whether you did come or not, it's not you fault," Dad responded. "At the same time I believe you received a message, I received a message on my phone saying that Dan Phantom had captured you. When I got home and you mom hadn't seen you, I assembled her and Aunt Jazz to help me find you. I would've gone into the Ghost Zone either way. I didn't find out you were really captured until I went downstairs and found Deyton and Kaylie watching on the screen. They pleaded me to help."

"But still, if I had never discovered my powers-" I said, trying to blame myself.

"Don't ever wish you didn't have your powers," he said sternly. "They make you special, Ellie. They are a part of you just as much as they are a part of me. Don't forget that."

"I won't," I said. "I love you, Dad."

"I love you too, Ellie." My dad wrapped his arm around my shoulders. "Now let's get back to everyone- they're all waiting in the basement."

"Everyone?" I gasped. My entire family knew?

"I told your mom to get everyone to help," he said. "Of course, only Dylan and Danielle were the only ones who didn't know by then."

I laughed a little. Those two were completely clueless.

We approached the portal, and it slid open. My dad and I stepped inside.

My entire family stood before us. My mom, my cousins, my aunt; even Kaylie was there. They stared at my dad and I, completely and utterly shocked. I reached up to my ear and took out the camera that was still perched there. My dad and I both transformed back to human.

"We're back, everyone," I said lamely.

All of sudden, there was a huge rush as my family engulfed my father and I. My mom ran up and held me tightly to her chest, tears streaming down her face. "You're back," she whispered. "You're back." Then she let go of me and turned to my dad. He embraced her and kissed her on the lips.

Dylan, Deyton, and Danielle all piled on me at once. I was being smothered by three practically identical triplets, all yelled out sentiments to me. "I was so worried!" "You were so good!" and "I knew you would make it!" were some of the things said to me. My aunt Jazz was next; she wrapped me in a warm hug and said to me, "You're the spitting image of your father." I glowed brightly at that comment.

Kaylie was next in line. I could see tearstains on her face and she hugged me. "I was so worried, we saw and heard the whole thing through the camera," she sniffled. "I'm so glad you're back, Ellie, I'm so glad your back."

"I would never leave you," I said, squeezing my best friend. "You're the best friend I could ever have."

"Don't say that so quickly," she said, drawing away from me. "Please don't be mad at me…"

"Why…" I began, then the crowd parted, and I realized why Kaylie thought I would be mad at her.

Eric was standing at the table in the basement with my palm pilot in his hand, shutting off the camera software.

"We had to call him to help, Ellie, we had no other choice," Kaylie explained behind me, but I wasn't listening. I approached Eric.

He looked different to me, changed somehow from my months of absence. He was taller and thinner and he wasn't wearing his glasses. Although this gave him a very distinguished look, he appeared to be very tired, as if something had been nagging at him a long time. I guess I looked the same way, though.

Kaylie fell behind me as I walked up to within three feet of Eric, and the entire room went silent. Everyone knew what was going on. They all looked at us in anticipation. The tension was almost tangible.

Eric looked up at me and blinked. His face was expressionless, impossible to read. "Ellie," he began.

I cut him off. "I thought you were sick of this stuff," I said coldly, turned on my heel, and marched up the basement stairs towards my room. What had possessed me to say it, I don't know. Maybe I thought it would make me feel better, to say something angry to the person who had frustrated me for the past few months.

But did it make me feel better? Not one bit.

_A/N: I know you all wanted it to be Danni that helped Ellie and Danny, but Darius is really the one who had to be there. He has personal ties to Dan Phantom, and he needed to set things right for his father, not matter how awful his dad was. Also, Danny was always supposed to live. I guess I just made it really convincing that he was dead last chapter._

_Can't wait till next update,_

_Rachel_


	44. Clearing of the Rain

_A/N: No, it can't be the second to last chapter already!_

Chapter Forty-Four

Clearing of the Rain

I quietly shut the door to my room. It was rather peaceful in here; Phanny wasn't even in my room. Everything was just as I left it, eerily silent. The only sound was that of the rain pounding against the windows and several claps of thunder.

As quiet as my room was, my mind was racing. What had I just done? I have spent the last months completely sick over the fact that I gave up Eric, and then I got my one chance to make it up to him and I blew it. It completely exploded in my face. I hadn't even given him a chance to talk. What was _wrong_ with me?

Slowly, I made my way over to my dresser. I wasn't even thinking about what I was doing as I opened my top drawer and looked at what was inside.

I keep all kinds of odds and ends in my top drawer. I keep tickets to plays I've gone to, little mementos of things I've done, and more valuable things like cash and jewelry. I reached down and took out my mom's ring. I thought of when my dad must have given it to her; I bet they had been a happy couple. I bet they never had issues like Eric and I.

I placed the ring back in the drawer and felt something else. Slowly, carefully, as if extracting DNA, I pulled a long silver chain from the drawer. It was Eric's gift to me from Christmas. The sapphires dazzled even in the lack of light, as did the ever-so-delicate crystals around it. I remembered the day he had given it to me; I remembered kissing him on the cheek, and how it had felt.

Why had I fought with him again?

Why had I been so stupid as to give him up in the first place? Why had I taken what he said so gravely when I didn't even mean what I had said? Why had I thought I could protect him by breaking his heart and mine? Besides, we were no longer in danger; Dan Phantom was gone. We could be together. And now, I had blown it just because I was frustrated.

All of sudden, for no reason whatsoever, I broke down. The black hole that had been swallowing me up since I fought with Eric suddenly reversed, and every single feeling I had suppressed came back up. The shame, the pity, the hate, it all came wallowing up in one great mass. I started sobbing uncontrollably, gasping for breath, tears rolling down my face; I clung to my necklace so hard it dug into my hand. I sobbed and sobbed, letting go of everything.

Finally, I was free. I was free of every inhibition that had kept me so depressed for the past few months. Slowly, I opened my hand and looked at the necklace. There were red marks on my hand where I had clutched it. I unhooked the chain, and brought it up to my neck.

It was a beautiful necklace. Even though it didn't quite go with the worn shorts I was wearing, I felt so much better just to be wearing it. I looked into the mirror. My face was red, and my eyes were watery, but none of that mattered once I looked at the pendant around my neck.

I could hear my family emerging from the basement downstairs. I listened closely to their voices while I fiddled with the chain of the necklace.

"Eric, don't," I heard Kaylie's worried voice say.

"If she doesn't want to make up even after that, then we're never going to be friends," said Eric's angry voice.

"Everyone fights," Danielle responded.

"Yes, but not everyone yells at the people that try and help them," Eric said curtly.

"Just give her some time," Aunt Jazz pleaded.

"She's had enough time!" Eric yelled, frustrated. "I'm sick of fighting! I'm sick of reliving every moment of that fight! I'm sick of avoiding this! I'm leaving!"

"Let me drive you home, it's pouring," my mom said.

"I don't care," he said. "I don't care about the rain."

"Eric, please," Kaylie again begged.

"I'll see you later, Kaylie."

I looked back up at myself in the mirror. This was my only chance- if I didn't save myself now, I would never dig myself out of this hole. I had to act- and fast.

Without letting myself think about it, I burst out of my room and ran full force down the stairs. A huge clap of thunder shook the house, but it didn't stop me one bit. There was only one thing on my mind now. You have to reach Eric, I thought. You have to reach Eric or he's going to be gone forever.

My family and Kaylie looked up in surprise as I dashed down the stairs. "Ellie, what-" my mom began, but I wasn't listening to anything by the sound of Eric's words echoing through my head. I pulled open the front door so fast it banged back against the wall, but no one paid it any attention. I flew down the front steps into the pouring rain. My family crowded onto the front stoop.

I could barely see in the rain. Although it was only the afternoon, the dark storm clouds blocked out any and all forms or light except for the lightening that crackled overhead. I was crying still, but there was so much rain I couldn't even feel my tears anymore. The sky dumped swimming pool after swimming pool of water on top of me, but the only thing I was concerned with was the blurry figure in the distance.

"Eric!" I yelled, but thunder droned out my screams. I dashed forward into the grass and across the lawn, trying to keep up with Eric, who was walking at a very fast pace. "Eric, please, come back!"

I was gaining on him. I could now make out his brown hair, slicked down from the rain, and his clothes, which were also so wet that they were clinging to him. His house was a long way from ours- I couldn't believe that he was actually thinking of walking home in this storm.

"Eric, Eric, stop!" I yelled desperately. To my great surprise, as I neared within five feet of him, he stopped. "Eric!" I called again.

He spun around on his heel, and I could make out the hurt expression on his face. "What?" he said, the words filled with anger and regret. His eyes were filled with hurt as he looked at me. Suddenly, I felt the same rush I had when I had first found out how much I liked him. My stomach swooped.

"I'm sorry!" I cried. "I'm sorry, Eric! I'm sorry for saying all those things- I never meant any of them! Please, please, let's be friends again. I'm miserable! I'm standing out here in the rain, with no shoes on, begging you, but this is the happiest I've been in months! I'm sorry, Eric. I'm so sorry."

Eric's face was expressionless, completely impossible to read, but all the hurt had drained from his eyes. He was merely looking at me now as if he hadn't ever really seen me until now. "You're sorry?" he repeated emotionlessly, taking a step towards me.

"Yes," I whispered, meaning every single letter.

Eric walked over to me quickly, until we were practically nose to nose. But we never got to be nose to nose because at that moment, Eric leaned his head to the side and kissed me. And I kissed him back.

Rain cascaded down our faces and through our hair as we stood in that rainstorm, but for me it was as bright as a new sunny day. The earth had cleared and now it was only Eric and I, together, again. Fireworks were exploding- I wrapped my arms around Eric's neck and he wrapped his around my waist. And, although I don't know it for sure, I could have sworn my feet left the ground momentarily. After what felt like hours, we pulled apart.

"I'm sorry, too, Ellie," he said to me. "I never meant anything I said."

"I love you, Eric," I responded, summing up everything. Neither of us needed to be sorry anymore- it was all over. We were free of that now.

Eric looked like he was about to respond to make sure I understood he was sorry, but instead he merely kissed me on the cheek. Then, looking me in the eyes, he said softly, "I love you, too, Ellie."

Slowly, we unwrapped our arms from each other and turned to face the house. The rain died down slightly and we could see semi-clearly.

There they were, my entire family, plus Kaylie, standing and watching Eric and I. Every single one of them was smiling. My dad had his arm around my mom, and Deyton held on to Kaylie's hand. Dylan, Danielle, and Aunt Jazz were smiling more than I had ever seen them.

"I knew it," I heard Deyton say. Embarrassed, I turned and hid my head in Eric's shoulder, smiling all the same.

Carefully, Eric took my hand in his. Surprisingly, it was very warm despite the weather. "I'm never going to let you go, now," Eric laughed.

"I'm never going to let you," I said. "You ready to face the rest of them?" I asked, gesturing to everyone on the front stoop.

"Ready as I'll ever be for Kaylie squealing in my ear," he said. Then, hand in hand, we made our way up to our friends and family, ready for the fresh start that awaited us there.

_A/N: I really, really hope that satisfied everyone's need for Ellie to stop being an idiot and get back with Eric! I've been planning that chapter practically since I started writing this story. It's probably my favorite one ever to write. And, it's almost the end! Only one more update, everyone! The next chapter is, obviously, called "The End." When I put that one up, you'll also get an epilouge as well. _

_Thanks to all of you,_

_Rach_


	45. The End

_A/N: Here you go, everyone! The last chapters of Welcome to Specterton. I really hope you enjoy them..._

Chapter Forty-Five

The End

The house was quiet as I snuck downstairs in the early morning hours of August 15th. It was eight o'clock, but everyone was still enjoying being able to sleep in. I found the silence relaxing as I made my way into the kitchen.

Light flooded through the kitchen window, illuminating the outlines of many, many boxes. I looked at the boxes and sighed; soon, Dylan, Deyton, Danielle, and Aunt Jazz would be moving out. Aunt Jazz had been promoted at the firm she worked at in June, and now she could afford to buy the small three-bedroom rancher down the street that she had had her eye on. I knew that my cousins weren't moving far- they were still going to be living on Hallows Way- but I couldn't help but miss them already. They would be moving out next Saturday. Deyton was not excited that he was still going to have to share a room with Dylan, but now the house wouldn't be as crowded.

I made my way over to the refrigerator. As I reached to open the door, I took a moment to look at some of the things hanging from the magnets on it. There was a picture of my mom's last ultrasound, taken just a few days ago. Amid all the fuzzy lines I could just make out the form of my baby brother or sister. The doctor couldn't tell us whether we were getting a boy or a girl yet. My dad and I had placed a bet on the subject- if it's a boy, then I win and I get first say on the name, but if it's a girl, then he wins and gets first say on the name. Both of us already had our list of names picked out.

Next to the ultrasound hung a letter from Aunt Dani. In it she detailed what had happened to her last month- while wandering through the hills of Montana, she looked around and saw that no one was there with her. She thought back to the time that Jacob had proposed to her in mountains so similar, and of how lonely she felt now. She had no connection now, and although she thought that traveling freed her, it only ended up isolating her in the end. She spoke in her letter of jumping into her car and catching the first plane back to Jacob- where she found him, still diligently living in the house they had bought together. They were married within the week- she mentioned wanting desperately to invite us, but having no time to. That was just like Danni- do it now, regret not inviting others later.

Next to that hung an invitation. It was to the Cannons' barbeque- we would be going later on today. Mr. Cannon had spent most of July putting in a brand new high-tech tricked-out outdoor cooking and grilling system next to Eric's pool. Now that he was finished, he planned on breaking it in by inviting the Katzes and us to come over. My stomach fluttered on sight of the invitation; I was very excited.

I pulled out the piece of cake I had saved from a few days ago, from Kaylie's birthday party. She had turned fifteen- now I was the only one to remain fourteen, at least until September. Dylan, Deyton, and Danielle had all turned sixteen in June and could drive- well, all except Danielle, who just couldn't seem to pass her driving test. There was something about parallel parking that just didn't agree with her. I was very surprised when Deyton had passed so quickly, being so accident prone. I had a feeling that the only reason he passed was because he desperately wanted to be able to drive Kaylie around without the help of his mother.

I sat down at the table with my cake and sighed. The house was so quiet. But, of course, just as I finished eating, everyone else was up as well. I could hear the creaking of the floorboards on the ceiling above me.

"Good morning, Ellie," my dad said as he walked down the stairs, his face bright and sunny.

"Morning, Dad," I responded. He made his way over to the counter and began making coffee. "I guess we'll get a break from training today."

"I guess so," he responded. For the past few months, my dad and I had honed our ghost powers together. Although there was no longer anything threatening us, I had asked to learn. It was like learning about my heritage, only much cooler and with better powers.

Deyton soon joined us, stretching and yawning. "Morning, all," he said to my dad and I.

"Morning, Deyton," we said. Deyton walked right past us though and into the bathroom. The toilet flushed, and he came immediately out. I looked at my cousin in disgust.

"Aren't you going to wash your hands?" I asked, revolted.

"Oh, I didn't go," he said. "Dylan's in the shower."

The room fell quiet, but was soon interrupted by a loud yell from upstairs as Dylan's shower became molten hot. Deyton laughed and sipped orange juice. "That'll teach you to borrow the car when I called it," he said to himself.

-------------------

"Ellie, come on! Hurry up! We're going to be late!" my mom yelled from the bottom of the stairs. I slipped my sandals on and skidded down the stairs.

"What's the rush?" I said. "The Cannons know we're coming. Kaylie hasn't even left yet." I said, gesturing out the window towards the Katz house, where the car was still parked.

"Well, I've got a lot more people to get ready than the Katzes do, so we have to get moving!" my mom said, scooting me into the kitchen. I noticed as she did so the ever-so-slight curve along the line of her stomach; four months pregnant and starting to show it. "Now, did you have to go get the salad out of the refrigerator! We can't go to a party empty-handed."

Soon, after I had grabbed the salad my mom had made and Deyton had finally found his sunglasses, we all piled into our two cars and headed out the driveway towards Eric's house. It greeted us with its barn-red exterior and happy full-bloom flowers as we pulled into his driveway. Quickly, we unloaded out of the cars and headed for the back of Eric's house.

"Ellie!" Eric shouted as I came up behind the fence and into the yard, my family in tow.

"Hey, Eric," I said. He kissed me quickly on the cheek and took my hand in his, dragging me onto his patio in excitement.

"I made the salsa," he said happily, admiring his own accomplishment.

"Mom told you what to do," Hannah said. She was seated at the table, snacking on chips in front of her. Eric shot her a dirty look.

The rest of my family began to infuse into the backyard, greeting the Cannons. My dad congratulated Mr. Cannon on his new grill. Mrs. Cannon congratulated my mom on her new baby. Deyton rung his hands waiting for Kaylie.

Finally, the gate squeaked open and the Katzes emerged.

"I'm here!" Kaylie shouted, almost as if she knew we had been waiting for her. Deyton rushed over to her and kissed her, just as he always did. She laughed and turned rather red, matching the bright red bathing suit she was wearing underneath her shorts. Mr. and Mrs. Katz were wearing liberal amounts of sunscreen- so much that you could see white streaks on their faces- and Kaylie's brother Eli was talking on his cell phone.

"No, you hang up," he said into the phone. "No, you!"

"What the heck is up with Eli, Kaylie?" I asked. Eli hardly ever said a word, and today he was actually wearing bright colors instead of his usual khaki. I wondered if he might be ill.

"Believe it or not, he's talking to his girlfriend," she responded. "_Kelly_."  
I looked at Eli and back to Kaylie, as did Deyton and Eric. "As in like, peppy-happy-morning-announcement Kelly?" Eric asked, shocked. I remembered Eric's crush on her from the beginning of the year. Every boy in our school liked Kelly- she was pretty, peppy, and blonde.

"The one and only," Kaylie said. "It's really kind of funny to see them together. I never imagined any girl liking Eli, especially peppy pink Kelly, but it kind of fits. At least he's happy." She shrugged, as if it was a mystery she would never figure out.

"Anywho," Deyton restarted. "Aren't we here to go swimming? Come on! It's like two-hundred degrees!"

"Try more like ninety-four, Deyton," I said. "But I get your point."

We all made our way over to the pool. Dylan joined us, and Danielle decided she would rather relax on a lounge chair in her bikini. I sat on the edge of the pool and dipped my feet into the water.

I watched as Eric flipped off the diving board into the pool. It was near perfect, and Kaylie and I looked at each other from across the pool.

"What was that?" Kaylie asked.

Eric wiped water from his eyes. "I told you two that I was on a swim team. I went to diving camp one year."

"Geez," Deyton said.

"I wanna try!" Kaylie exclaimed. "I wanna try, I wanna try!" She tiptoed her way down the diving board and stood with her toes clinging to the edge.

"Kaylie, I had to spend a whole summer perfect that-" Eric started, warning her, but Kaylie had already bounced on the board and flipped herself into the air. She did a perfect rotation and landed neatly in the pool without making a ripple. She re-emerged, laughing.

"What?" Eric sputtered. "That took me- you had to have practice!"

"Don't be so full of yourself, Eric," she said. "It's not that hard."

"But…" I patted Eric's head, bobbing next to me.

"Let it go," I said playfully.

Eli was next up. He stood just as Kaylie did, with his toes right up to the edge, and bounced three times before springing up, twisting twice, and landing without making a splash. It was more perfect than either Kaylie's or Eric's.

"What the heck?" Eric asked. "Am I not special now?"

"Don't be too offended," Kaylie said. "Eli went to diving school too. But then we found out he was allergic to the chlorine. But today he took his allergy medicine, didn't you, Eli?"

Eli nodded plainly. His little sister was embarrassing him again.

And speaking of embarrassing little sisters…

"Look at me! Look at me, Eric, Ellie, Kaylie! I'm a fairy princess!" Hannah's voice screeched happily from the deck. We all swiveled around to see her dancing about on the deck in a small, pink, frilly bathing suit with a 'magic' wand. Eric hoisted himself out of the water and hid his head in his hands. I laughed.

"Hey, you shouldn't be laughing," he said, turning on me. "You're going to have one of those in a few months."

I looked at Hannah, so small and innocent, as she approached Eric, wrapped her hands around his neck, and kissed him on the cheek. Eric laughed and wiped it away, but I could tell that he really enjoyed his little sister. I then looked over at Kaylie, who was splashing Eli, who was being a good sport about it and taking the abuse. Maybe that would be my little brother or sister one day, splashing me on the face or kissing me on the cheek. I could only hope so.

"I guess you're right," I said. "I guess I will have a little sibling in a couple months."

I stared out over the water and the grass; my entire family was here. All my friends were here. Everything was changing completely, and yet somehow, here we were, altogether in Eric's backyard without a care. Next year Kaylie, Eric and I would be sophomores, and the triplets would be juniors… and I would be a fully trained ghost. I would also have a baby sibling and a house alone with my parents. And of course, I would have my new boyfriend, Eric, and my old best friend, Kaylie.

When I thought about it that way, I really had a lot. I always have; and having all those things helped me through whatever problems I had. And I would have all those people for the next time I got myself into trouble, too.

"Ellie, come on," Eric said, grabbing my hand and pulling me to the edge of the pool.

"What's this about?" I asked, laughing.

"We're all going to jump in," Eric said.

Kaylie took my hand on the other side of me, and Deyton took Kaylie's hand, and Hannah took Eric's; even Dylan, Danielle, and Eli joined in towards the end of the line.

I clutched my friends' hands tightly. "Are you ready?" I asked all of them. "One… Two… Three!"

Together, as one big mass, we all jumped into Eric's pool, never letting go of one another. This was how it should be, I thought- we all took risks, but at least we all jumped in together.


	46. Epilogue

Epilogue

Really, I get to do the epilogue? Really?

Hello, everyone, my name is Jack Fenton, and I will be your epilogue narrator. I've never really narrated anything before, so you'll just have to bear with me…

Wait a second.

Is that fudge I smell? Is Maddie making fudge? I'll be back.

Granddad? Granddad…

Great. He must have smelled the fudge. Now I guess I have to narrate the epilogue too. I just narrated the entire story! And parts of it are really embarrassing! Oh well… I should've warned Nanna about the fudge. My fault, I suppose.

I really shouldn't give you an introduction. I told you so much about my life that you should recognize me… but it's Ellie. And now that I've told you my entire story, I suppose I should tell you what happened to the people in it after we jumped into that pool. Because not everything ended there.

As for Darius, I never saw or heard of him again. From what I heard later on, he disappeared not too long after his encounter with Dan Phantom. He left a note to his mother saying that he was tired of the rich life they led and had left. I never heard a word about him attending college or becoming successful like his dad- he just vanished. As for his mother, she remarried to young Green Bay football player and still lives in Vlad's mansion.

My dad did get the job that he applied for at the spacecraft company. He got the letter the day after the Cannon's barbeque. And eventually, after designing spacecraft and airplanes, he did get his dream and got to go up in a comet that left him weightless for a few moments- just like in space.

My baby brother (yes, I did win the bet) Sullivan Jeremy Fenton was born January 19 the next year. I got to pick out his name. Although he is fifteen years younger than me, I love him more than anything else.

Aunt Jazz moved into the little rancher that she loved, and eventually did make it back up to being a psychiatrist again. She never did marry.

Atlas, my math teacher, married another teacher in the school. They both shared an obsession for neatness, the color blue, symmetry, and even numbers. They had perfectly identical twin daughters.

As for my friends and cousins and I, when we grew up…

Lianna Baxter's parents eventually cut off her money supply. She never attended college. The last I heard she was working as a bartender in a local joint.

Roger Woods and Randy Katenbaum grew up to go into the movie business together. They won an internship with a very large production company and have been working there ever since.

Hannah Cannon, our little chatterbox, grew up to become a famous talk show host. Her friendly, bubbly style made her more charismatic than anyone I had ever met. I still watch her show every day.

Eli Katz one day became an allergy doctor. His extreme skill in diving earned him a spot on his college swim team, and he was offered a spot on a professional swim team, but turned down the offer in order to marry his long-time girlfriend Kelly.

Dylan and Danielle moved to New York shortly after finishing college. Both now work in the fashion business… Dylan is a very big executive at Louis Vuitton and Danielle develops new lines of make-up at Clinique.

Kaylie and Deyton married during college on a trip to France. They both moved to Philadelphia, where Kaylie worked in the zoo (specializing in large cats) and Deyton worked as a research scientist for GlaxoSmithKline. He specialized in diabetes research- he never gave up on finding a cure for Kaylie. They had numerous children- their first daughter was named 'Emi'.

Eric achieved his dream of one day living in a huge apartment with big windows and a view. He became a very successful stock broker and could afford the nice apartment and car he always dreamed of. He fell in love with a journalist and they married in Specterton after they graduated college. They had twins- a boy and a girl.

Who was the journalist?

I honestly thought you would've guessed that one.

It was me.

I went to journalism so that I could tell the truth about everything. I promised myself one day that I wouldn't lie after what happened with the ghosts, and I thought that everyone else should know the truth too. Eric stood by me the entire time, and we got married in spring in Specterton.

And, of course, we had the twins. But that's another story entirely.


	47. Disclaimers and Notes

Here are all the things that I do not own that were mentioned somewhere, somehow in this story! They look completely random when put together like this, don't they? But I looked through every chapter and found them, and they are all mentioned. They're in order, for the most part, if you want to go back and check:

_Danny Phantom_

_EPA: Environmental Protection Agency_

_E-Bay_

_Nintendo_

_Nike_

_NewBalance_

_Apple iPod_

_Harry and the Potters_

_Harry Potter_

_Spongebob_

_Snapple_

_Saleen S7 Twin Turbo_

_Microsoft_

_BMW_

_Hummer_

_Infiniti_

_CNN_

_Batmobile_

_IHOP_

_Gateway Computers_

_Boston College_

_Lassie_

_The Secret Life of Bees_

_Barnes and Noble_

_AOL Instant Messenger_

_MapQuest_

_Lincoln Cars_

_Tetris_

_Green Bay Packers_

_Animal Planet_

_Cosmopolitan magazine_

_Cingular_

_Firefly phones_

_Motorola_

_Starbucks_

_NyQuil_

_Scripps National Spelling Bee_

_Anne of Green Gables_

_Harrisburg International Airport_

_Barbie_

_Holiday Inn_

_The White House_

_The Pentagon_

_M&M's_

_Washington Convention Center_

_Museum of Natural History_

_Hope Diamond_

_The Innocent Man_

_Blackberry phones_

_Biltmore Estate_

_Expresate!_

_PSP_

_Grand Theft Auto_

_Honda_

Here are some random things in the story that you may not have noticed the first time you were reading:

Randy Katenbaum was first mentioned in Chapter Nine.

Nathan is Jazz's assistant, mentioned first in Chapter Eighteen.

Harriet Chin is a guest at Vlad's funeral in Chapter Twenty-Seven.

Thank you guys all so, so much for reading. I really loved writing this. I have never written anything this long before- Welcome to Specterton takes up 198 pages on Microsoft Word on my computer! I actually had to split it up into two parts so that the documents wouldn't become too big for the computer to handle. This story has nearly 25, 000 hits- more than I ever could have imagined. Thanks to all of my readers for making this such a great experience. Thank you all so much for reviewing- your feedback kept me going even in the depths of writer's block! This has been so much fun. I've loved working with the readers and the characters. Thank you guys so, so, soooo much!

Much, much, much love,

Rachel D.


End file.
